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Scheduling (broadcasting)



 
 
Broadcast programming, or scheduling, is the practice of organizing television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 or radio
Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
 programs in a daily, weekly, or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters regularly change the scheduling of their programs to build an audience for a new show, retain that audience, or compete with other broadcasters' programs.

Television scheduling strategies are employed to give programs the best possible chance of attracting and retaining an audience.






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Encyclopedia


Broadcast programming, or scheduling, is the practice of organizing television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 or radio
Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
 programs in a daily, weekly, or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters regularly change the scheduling of their programs to build an audience for a new show, retain that audience, or compete with other broadcasters' programs.

Television scheduling strategies are employed to give programs the best possible chance of attracting and retaining an audience. They are used to deliver programs to audiences when they are most likely to want to watch them and deliver audiences to advertisers in the composition that makes their advertising most likely to be effective (Ellis 2000 p.136).

At a micro level, scheduling is the minute planning of the transmission; what to broadcast and when, ensuring that every second of airtime is covered.

Scheduling strategies


Dayparting


In broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
, dayparting is the practice of dividing the day
Day

A day is a units of measurement of time equivalent to approximately 24 hours. It is not an International System of Units unit but it is accepted for use with SI....
 into several parts, during each of which a different type of radio programming
Radio programming

Radio programming is the content that is Broadcasting by radio stations.The original inventors of radio, such as Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, expected it to be used for one-on-one communication tasks where telephones and telegraphs could not be used because of the impossibility of stringing wires from one point to another, such as in...
 or television programming appropriate for that time is aired. Programs are most often geared toward a particular demographic, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time.

Theming

Having special theme days, or theme weeks such as "Shark Week".

Stripping

Running a syndicated television series every day of the week. It is commonly restricted to describing the airing of shows which were weekly in their first run; The West Wing could be stripped, but not Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! is a game show featuring trivia in topics such as history, literature, pop culture and science. The show has a decades-long Jeopardy! broadcast history in the United States since its creation by Merv Griffin in the early 1960s....
, as daily is the schedule for which it is intended.

Stacking

Stacking is a technique used to develop audience flow by grouping together programs with similar appeals to "sweep" the viewer along from one program to the next (Vane and Gross, 1994, p.175).

Counterprogramming

Counterprogramming is used when a time period is filled with a program whose appeal is different from the opponent program because it is a different genre or appeals to a different demographic.

Bridging

Bridging is being used when a station tries to prevent the audience from changing channels during a junction point - the main evening breaks where all channels stop programs and shift gear (Ellis, 2000). This is achieved in a number of ways including: having a program already underway and something compelling happening at a junction point, running a program late so that people ‘hang around’ and miss the start of other programs, or advertising the next program during the credits of the previous.

Tentpoling


In tent pole programming the programmers bank on a well-known series having so much audience appeal that they can place two unknown series on either side, and it is the strength of the central program that will bring the others along to victory.

Hammocking


A technique used by broadcasters whereby an unpopular program is scheduled between two popular ones in the hope that viewers will watch it. Public-service broadcasters use this as a way of promoting serious but valuable content.

Crossprogramming

Cross-programming involves the interconnection of two shows. This is achieved by dragging a storyline over two episodes of two different programs.

Hotswitching

In hotswitching
Hot switch

In television, a hot switch is where the ending of one show leads directly into the start of the show in the next time slot without a Television advertisement break....
 the programmers eliminate any sort of commercial break when one program ends and another begins; this immediately hooks the audience into watching the next program without a chance to change the channel between programs.

See also

  • Broadcast automation
    Broadcast automation

    Broadcast automation is the use of technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast station or a broadcast network, it is used to run a facility in the absence of a human operator....
  • Radio Computing Services
    Radio Computing Services

    Radio Computing Services, also known as RCS Inc., is a provider of Broadcast programming and broadcast software for radio, Internet and television stations....
     - automated scheduling for radio stations
    Category:Television schedules
  • Electronic Media
    Electronic media

    Electronic media are media that utilize electronics or electromechanical energy for the end user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which are most often Desktop publishing, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end user in the printed form....
  • TV listings (UK)