1. Genre and ’s Target
Audience Research
By Megan Robinson

2. Comedy
Comedy is work that is generally intended to be humorous, to amuse
and to make an audience laugh. There are different types of comedy;
satire, screwball, black comedy, parodies and romantic comedies as
well as situation comedies.
For examples are The Inbetweeners, School of Comedy, PhoneShop, Noel
Fielding’s Luxury Comedy, Cardinal Burns, The Midnight Beast and
Beaver Falls.

3. Drama
Drama is a type of entertainment where an audience expect to be
entertained and informed, where a situation dramatized. Storylines
are fictional and can have a vast range of themes from crime to
soap operas. Episodes may be self contained or may be continued
over several episodes.
For examples are Skins, Misfits, My Mad Fat Diary and Youngers.

4. Reality or non-scripted
Reality TV is TV that presents unscripted situations, that
documents actual situations and usually features unknowns as
opposed to professional actors. Reality TV includes competition-
based shows that are becoming increasingly popular, which have
common elements where one competitor is eliminated per show.
For examples are Made in Chelsea, Desperate Scousewives,
Shipwrecked: The Island and What Happens in Kavos…

5. ‘First Look’ Channel 4 programming
The ‘First Look’ is when you can watch the day before it’s supposedly
come out. Since E4 launched in 2001, it has aired a daily ‘First Look‘
feature at 7pm each weekday, in which viewers are able to watch
the episode to be shown on Channel 4 the following day. The ‘first
look’ is reshown on timeshift channel E4 + 1 at 8pm. Occasionally
the ‘first look’ can be omitted, particularly if the following day’s C4
episode is a special or event edition, at these times it may be
replaced with a related programme or special.
For examples are Hollyoaks and Shameless.

6. Acquired programming (First Run)
Acquired programming-first run, describes programmes that are
not based or filmed in the UK but are bought in to the UK from
abroad. Very often these programmes are brought in from America,
first run means that it is the first time that the programme will
have been aired in the UK.
For examples are How I Met Your Mother, Revenge, The Big Bang
Theory, 90210, 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, etc.

7. Acquired programming (repeats)
Acquired programming-repeats refers to programmes that are not
filmed in the UK but are bought in from abroad. They are
programmes that will have been previously aired in the UK and
being shown for a second time. These programmes may have been
shown many times dependant on how popular they are to viewers.
For examples are Charmed, One Tree Hill, Ugly Betty, Scrubs,
Smallville, etc.

8. E4 is British digital television channel which came out in 18th January 2001.
The ‘E’ stands for entertainment and their target audience is 15-35 age group.
The programming are mostly from U.S. such as 90210, How I Met Your Mother,
One Tree Hill, The Big Bang Theory, Revenge, etc. But there are other
programming from this country which are Misfits, Made In Chelsea, Hollyoaks,
The Inbetweeners, etc. It is most successful broadcast was on 11 October 2010
when an episode of The Inbetweeners pulled in over 3.7 million viewers. In 2012
E4 got it’s highest share of viewers from the target audience.