Light, Julie J. (2004) Television channel identity: the role of channels in the delivery of public service television in Britain, 1996-2002. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3939/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] University of Glasgow Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies Television Channel Identity: the Role of Channels in the Delivery of Public Service Television in Britain, 1996 - 2002 Julie J Light PhD Thesis August 2004 © Julie Light 2004 Abstract This thesis examines the developing role of television channels in the delivery of public service broadcasting in Britain, 1996 - 2002. Starting from a hypothesis that channels are distinct television products in their own right and increasingly important in organising how broadcasters think about their audiences, it argues that channels have identities expressed through their schedules and determined by their relationship to genre and target audience. Based on research at the BBC (from 1998 - 2002), involving interviews with key staff and the analysis of BBC documents, this study examines the television broadcasting functions of commissioning, scheduling, marketing and audience research. It illustrates how these activities created specific identities for television channels and how these identities shaped the programming that reached television screens. It reveals how channels became increasingly important in the television landscape as buyers in a more demand-led commissioning economy and acted as a focus for the creation of media brands. It then discusses how the evolution of a channel portfolio enabled each channel to play a specific role in fulfilling public service obligations and looks at how different models of audience emerged in relation to the different public service television channels, charting the decline of the mass audience and the emergence of the visualisation of audiences in a more individualised way. The thesis concludes by addressing some implications of these developments. It looks at how the different models of audience in circulation affect debates about quality television, and how changing ideas about the construction of public service channels may impact on the regulation of broadcasting. Finally, it explores the effect of multiple channels, each targeted at specific audiences, on the concept of a unitary public sphere and speculates that channels have the potential to underpin the creation of multiple imagined communities. 2 Contents Television Channel Identity: the Role of Channels in the Delivery of Public Service Television in Britain, 1996 - 2002 1 Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 2 Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 6 1.1 The hypothesis of this thesis......................................................................................... 6 1.2 The theoretical approach and context of this thesis...................................................... 7 1.3 The research questions ................................................................................................. 8 1.4 The television industry context ...................................................................................... 9 1.5 The structure of the thesis ........................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................. 13 2. 1 Overview ...................................................................................................................... 13 2.2 The study of cultural production .................................................................................. 13 2.3 Television channels and television as a medium ........................................................ 14 2.4 The characteristics of public service broadcasting ..................................................... 18 2.5 The role of the BBC ..................................................................................................... 24 2.6 Thinking about audiences ........................................................................................... 27 2. 7 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 34 Chapter 3: Methodology ..................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Scope ...................................................................................................................... 37 3.2 Methods ..................................................................................................................... 39 3.3 The overall critical approach ........................................................................................ 48 Chapter 4: A brief history of channel-based broadcasting ............................................. 52 4.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................... 52 4.2 The early development of terrestrial channels in the UK ............................................ 53 4.2 Parallels with BBC Radio ............................................................................................ 59 4.3 Changes in the UK media industry and the development of multichannel television . 62 4.4 Background to the BBC ............................................................................................... 65 4.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 5: Television commissioning at the BBC ............................................................ 72 5.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................... 72 5.2 The development of the BBC commissioning process 1996 -2001 ........................... 73 5.3 Commissioning for channels ....................................................................................... 80 5.4 Commissioning public service television ..................................................................... 90 5.5 Commissioning for BBC1 and BBC2 ........................................................................... 99 5.6 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 106 Chapter 6: Scheduling public service television ............................................................ 109 3 .. ~ Contents 6. 1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 109 6.2 The established scheduling process ......................................................................... 110 6.3 The new art of scheduling ......................................................................................... 116 6.4 Scheduling and the everyday .................................................................................... 125 6.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 131 Chapter 7: Branding, marketing and on air identity ...................................................... 134 7. 1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 134 7.2 Television and the development of media branding ................................................. 135 7.3 The development of marketing at the BBC ............................................................... 137 7.4 Defining channels as brands ..................................................................................... 141 7.5 The mechanics of metonymic promotion .................................................................. 145 7.6 On-air promotion: trails and media planning ............................................................. 150 7.7 On-air promotion: the channel identities ................................................................... 155 7.8 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 162 7.9 Examples of BBC on-air identities ............................................................................. 164 Chapter 8: Understanding audiences .............................................................................. 170 8. 1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 170 8.2 The industry, the organisation, the staff and ideas of audience ............................... 171 8.3 Conceptual models of the audience .........................................................................