c4 presentation

CHANNEL 4

DOCUMENTARIE

S

EV

I E,

I ZA

AK

AN

D K

I RS

TY

CHANNEL 4 OVERVIEW

Channel 4 first aired on the 2nd of November 1982.

Channel 4 has a reputation world wide in documentaries based on bold storytelling and their unfamiliar use of technology. Over the last 30 years channel 4’s commissions have mostly been a matter of taking on ideas that no one else was brave enough to do. However, as this is such a common happening the public are starting to create a profile that this is what they expect of Channel 4. THIS CAUSES CONTROVERSY

The majority of Channel 4’s documentaries are reality-based and focus on a particular part of society such as sex addicts, people with disabilities and people with health/ body problems. Although they do show more factual/real life shows such as King Richard and 9/11. Channel 4 seem to go from one extreme to another. Even the names of the documentaries show an extent of exploitation as they are titles such as ‘Sex on Wheels’ ‘My baggy body’ and ‘Bodyshockers’. All of these are discriminative to someone with a body disfunction or problem, this seems to be a popular type of programme shown on Channel 4 nowadays.

However, showing in their viewing figures, in the 4 weeks of August 2013 a reality-based show came out as most viewed with Royal marines commando school popping up 3 times which seems to be a popular show. The total amount of people who viewed this programme over the four weeks of august was 8,679 000. This is a very popular trend with this channel that the most popular shows are also the most criticised.

CHANNEL 4 FUNDING

It is an expensive process to fund documentaries their programming cost was £525million in 2009 alone and it has increased in due years.

The amount varies, but roughly £150K is need for a one hour fully commissioned Channel4 programme. For True Stories roughly £40K for a pre-purchase, £10K for a licence but it can vary depending on the project.

PRO CHANNEL 4

In the past, channel 4 has got some bad press about the ethical problems in their documentaries. Programmes like “embarrassing bodies” and “big fat gypsy weddings” are said to pin point a minority of people and potentially bully them or judge them. I would like to point out the important truth that the people on these shows go on voluntarily. Companies like channel 4 only air these shows because that’s what the audience wants. If no one watched them then they’d be taken off air. Channel 4 get many viewers from these programmes and it helps them earn a lot of money, if the shows weren’t as popular as they are they wouldn’t bother “exploiting” these people to make the shows.

Furthermore, many of channel 4 documentaries aren’t based on isolating small groups of Britain’s population.

EDUCATING YORKSHIRE

Educating Yorkshire, based on BAFTA Award-winning series “educating Essex”, shows the struggles and dramas of senior school pupils. The table below shows the views of educating Yorkshire throughout its series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educating_Yorkshire

Date Views (million)

Episode 1 5th September 2013 4.76




Episode 5 3rd October 2013 3.85

Episode 6 10th October 2013 4.20



…At Christmas 19th December 2013 2.75

One Year On 21st August 2014 2.24



EDUCATING YORKSHIRE

One of the pupils on the show, Musharaf, suffers with an acute stammer. It has proved to be one of his biggest challenges to overcome. Known by friends as Mushy P, he is a popular and polite member of Thornhill. However coming up to his exams and attempting to face the speaking section of his GCSE in English was daunting yet life changing for Musharaf.

THE UNDATEABLES

REVIEWS

“What a sick idea? I don't like the exploitative creepy feel to this”

“I won't watch the programme because I hated the trailers.”

“Channel Four is in terrible condition, it's making the BBC look good which is quite an achievement these days”

Controversy means ratings and channel fours ruthless and embarrassing marketing campaign for undateables worked as it reeled in a huge audience of 2.2m (9.3%) in its first 15 minutes, before bowing out with a crowd of 2.5m (10.8%) in its final quarter of an hour.

c4 presentation

Education