Research the potential launch of a new TV channel in the UK Chloe Aylard http://chloeresearch.tumblr.com/ 

Research the potential launch of a new TV channel in the UK • From my finding from my primary and secondary research I have tried to find answers on the following sub topics: - • How to launch a TV channel • How much it would cost • How much would you make the audience pay, if any. • How much would it cost to advertise • Compare/ research TV channels (I.e. what is shows, audience figures) • What could this channel show? • The topics marked in red are the questions that I have not answered in my primary research, I think this is because at the start I was a bit too broad in thinking I could research this all in 6 weeks. However, I have managed to answer them in my secondary research. 

Secondary research • For my secondary research I used only the internet to find my sources. I did try and look in books however I did not find that there was any relevant information in them as it was mostly out of date and different to ways channels can be launched today. I used the internet as it had reliable, and newly added information on my topic. • I found it hard at times to find sources and some did not have anything to do in with launching a TV channel in the UK, however, from using different search engines I managed to find good, reliable sources. I found that for my research forums were a good place to search as people would give others their knowledge on launching a new channel in the UK, and some, even if they did not know a lot about it, would post helpful links that I had not found. 

Method 1 – Focus Group • For my focus group, I asked 14 questions to my groups including demographics such as gender and age. The focus group lasted roughly around 12 minutes. • In the focus group I had 6 people participating, 4 females and 2 males, all were around the ages of 17 and 18. • I was quite happy with how my focus group turned out because some questions they gave really good answers that you could follow up on and would often discuss with each other, at first the group seemed quite quiet and didn’t have any broad answers, this however was overcome very quickly. • If I could redo this focus group I would of asked more questions as some are quite similar to the questions I had in my questionnaire, I would of also got more people involved from different ages so that I was able to get more opinions rather than getting opinions from a similar age group. 

Method 2 – Comparative Analysis • For my comparative analysis I research the television provider Sky. I used Sky as this was the only available service to me at the time I conducted the analysis. • I researched different genres that Sky had and compared how many channels each one had. Using my secondary research, I looked at BARB (Source 5) to compare viewing figures. • If I feel that I could of compared different providers to get a more in depth analysis. 

Method 3 – Questionnaire • To create my questionnaire I used freeonlinesurverys.com as I found this the most useful. • In this questionnaire I had 14 questions including demographic questions such as age and gender. • I then put the questionnaire on the social networking site Facebook. I did this because companies now are getting more and more feedback and opinions from social networking sites, this is because is it easily to collect as people are able to fill it out when they have time and they will not have to worry about sending it back to the person wanting the quantitative data via post or in person. People can also have discusses on sites such as Facebook via comments and here they can share opinions and ideas with the company as well as others. • I managed to get 30 people to answer my questionnaire. If I had more time I would of put the link on more social network sites such as Twitter and Google+ • Unfortunately the website that I had created my survey on only allowed me to see my results for 10 days, meaning that I cannot look at my results online. To overcome this I had to print out my survey and get people to fill these out. - http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ov252esbsgx6rb8989973 

What makes you watch television? This is the results I got from answers given by my focus group. Many said that the majority of TV that they watched would be reality, with programs like ‘The Only is Essex’ proving popular. From my questionnaire I found that reality was the second most popular genre after drama taking 21.4% Fewer people prefer comedy programs and channels such as Comedy Central rather than reality TV. From my comparative research I found out that of 1141 channels (including radio) there was only 6 dedicated comedy channels, these were including the plus one of the same channel. Another answer to this question was “Because it is a conversation starter” This is why some people may watch television as people are able to talk and discuss issues in shows. 

Would you prefer a subscription channel or a channel with adverts? • From my questionnaire I found out that only 33.33% per cent of people I asked would prefer a subscription channel without adverts. This is because most people would not want to pay for a channel, when they could have a channel with adverts for free. • From my focus group I found that some preferred adverts because it allowed them to get in during the break to get food and drink, another thought that if we had no breaks, shows would become more. Another issue brought up in the focus group was that people should be given to choice to pay extra for having no adverts. From source 8 in my secondary research I found that the greater the audience to more companies will have to pay to advertise on that channel, this means that the channel is able to earn more and develop the channel and shows that are shown on that channel, and since the majority of the public prefer a channel with adverts companies will be forced to pay thousands. 

“Subscription digital TV packages are getting cheaper and cheaper so if you and your family spend a lot of time watching TV and you think you’d like a wider selection than just the Freeview channels, then you should consider getting a subscription package.” - http://www.digitalchoices.co.uk/digital-tv/subscription-tv.html From this quote I believe that certain companies believe that more people should subscribe to television providers and some channels. This makes the customer feel as if they are part of something special that not everyone will have. Some exclusive channels on television are subscription mainly films and sports channels, as well as HD channels. HD channel subscriptions are becoming more and more popular due to the fact that more people are getting HD televisions. People are likely to subscribe to a sports channel if there is an important event or game that they would like to see on. 

What type of channel would you like to be launched? • The majority of people who took part in my questionnaire would like to see a new comedy channel launched, this may be due to the fact that on certain TV providers, such as Sky who have thousands of channels, they only have 6 dedicated comedy channels, so this is why people would see more. • Movies were also popular, followed by entertainment. From my comparative research I found that the genres entertainment and films were the most popular having the most channels, this is probably as they are the most popular with people and they will be more likely to see these. If a new channel were to be launched it would probably show comedy shows and/or movies as it would almost be guaranteed that people would at least watch it once and would be likely to return. 

• From source 5 in my secondary research I looked into viewing figures for popular genres in November 2010 and 2011. 2010 2011 From the viewing figures I collected from BARB we can see that in 2010 the most popular genre was children, with comedy coming in at second place. From the viewing figures in 2011 we can see that the genre comedy is becoming more and more popular scoring the highest viewing figures. The genre that has decreased the most was music losing a total of 93,000 viewers. BARB is a reliable site to use as it is the main source of TV audience figures. 

• From my results I found out that the majority of people that took part in my primary research I found out the majority of people would prefer a channel without adverts. They would also like to see a comedy channel being launched. • I’m still not sure what makes people watch television however the shows that people watch have a big impact on why they watch television or not. I’m not sure because of this as there is a lot of different aspects to why people watch TV and as some of these are quite broad answers you cannot exactly put them under a certain reason. • I am still unsure of some questions I wanted to ask in my sub topics such as how much advertising on a TV channel would cost, I looked at the website, http://www.tvadvertisingcosts.co.uk/ however you had to email them to find out how much it would cost, unfortunately I did not get the chance to do this. • If I was too repeat this project I would ensure I had more primary research, i.e. interviews, I was also make sure that the reports and findings that I found were more in depth, and I would also get more people to fill out questionnaires and be in focus groups from different age groups and backgrounds to get more knowledge and get a wider set of answers. 

Webography: • http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com/image-files/cartoon-tv-3.gif Martin Berube, 2008, November 2011 • http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weekly- viewing?period_year[]=2011&period_month[]=9&period_week[]=25&button_sub mit=View+Figures&period[]=201109060125 • BARB, September 2011, 4th October 2011 • http://www.tvadvertisingcosts.co.uk/ Author unknown, date unknown, 29th October 2011 • http://www.digitalchoices.co.uk/digital-tv/subscription-tv.html • Author unknown, Wednesday 26 July 2011, 29th October 2011