Audience & Demographics | Media Coursework

E4 is the self-proclaimed “destination” for a cutting edge young audience. E4 are currently on Freeview, DSAT, and cable this means that the content I produce should be seen by all these different types of viewers but should still be contained in the age bracket of 15-35 as if I do not stick to this it means that I would not be sticking to the brief as my content should be aimed towards the E4’s demographic.

E4 and there sibling channel E4+1 are able to reach over 8.9 million viewers per each month but 52% of the viewers are aged between 16-34 which means the majority of the audience of E4 is mainly consisted of 16-34 year olds. This means that I should ideally be aiming my content that I produce to this age bracket.

The majority of TV programmes that E4 currently broadcasts is mainly comedy:

As you can see from this current TV schedule (taken from 17/12/14) it shows that most of the shows that E4 are currently broadcasting is mainly either comedy or drama. E4 will often show a late movie which is usually broadcasted after 9pm. This is because after 9pm shows are allowed to have swearing or violence in so that’s why E4 mainly shows a movie after the 9pm pre-watershed time frame.

With this information it means that I should ideally create an original TV programme which is either classed as a comedy or classed as a drama. This way I would be able to gain as many viewers from my target audience as possible as they are used to watching these sorts of programmes.

However because Silver Lining Productions is known for pushing the boundaries it means that I am able to create content which may be original and unique to E4. Because Silver Lining Productions is known for their recent success with fly on the wall documentaries it means that I am open to create an original documentary based around something I want to film. The idea of a quasi-documentary really appeals to me as it would mean I would be able to follow certain conventions of a normal documentary but yet still make is original and appealing enough so that it would appeal to the people who are aged between 15-35 years. The idea of a quasi-documentary means that the content I would be producing content that would follow the conventions of a normal documentary but at the same time the content would not intentionally be classed as a documentary.

I feel like this sort of genre of content would be unique as you do not see that many quasi-documentaries which are broadcasted currently in this day and age, so creating this type of content would mean I would be creating something which the audience would not frequently view so this may be an advantage as it may intrigue them due to the fact of it being considered almost as the “unknown” and they would want to know more about what this new genre of TV programme is and what the potential of it could be.

The top 10 shows that E4 have in terms of views are:

Misfits

Skins (UK)

Come Dine With Me

The Inbetweeners

Dead Set

Made In Chelsea

Fonejacker

Sorority Girls

Nearly Famous

Beaver Falls

Therefore if I were to create a quasi-documentary it allows the audience and the viewers to witness some new content instead of me just creating another comedy programme.