Channel OptionsWhen deciding what channel we felt our documentary would be best to be shown and aired on, I carried out some research into the conventions of different mainstream and popular channels in order to help influence our decision.

BBC● Firstly, I decided to look at the BBC. I did this through BBC iPlayer looking at the different channels, what is aired on the

different channels and looking to find a difference between the programmes on the variety of channels.

When first going onto the BBC website I was presented with the different genres of programme in which was on BBC iPlayer and once selecting documentaries a statistic into how many documentaries were available online was also shown, this statistic supports the BBC’s aim to educate and inform the public.

Once discovering how many documentaries the BBC have online I chose to look furtherinto the different styles and genres in order to see if there was a dominant style in which the BBC chose to follow. From this I was able to highlight and base a decision into howsuitable a dog documentary would be for the organisation and the different channels.

Evaluation

From looking on BBC iPlayer, it was made clear that dog documentaries as a theme were not extremely popular, this being supported by only one search response appearing in which overall still doesn’t focus directly on dogs.

Although Super Vet is a popular documentary unfortunately it doesn’t support the idea of a documentary on the channel purely dominated around dogs.

ITVSecondly, I went on to look at ITV, another popular channel available both on freeview and other TV providers such as Sky, Virgin

etc. Again I opted to look online at the different genres in which ITV mainly air on their channels.

On ITV player all the genres of TV show are clearly presented at the top of the screen, this is useful as you are easily able to distinguish between different genres in which are on the channels. However, unlike the BBC is it less clear into how many programmes there are overall therefore making it less clear into which genres are most popular upon the channels.

When selecting the factual option different documentaries are clearly displayed. Throughout the pages it is made clear the different styles of documentaries; some having the main aim to educate whereas others are aimed to entertain.

Evaluation

By searching ‘dogs’ it was clearly shown ITV already do air some documentaries about the animal therefore supporting the idea of another one more thoroughly. It is evident due to the minimal number of documentaries on the channel that there is recognition into the rising popularity of dogs and the growing target audience in which the genre of documentary is gaining in the UK.

CHANNEL 4Thirdly, I moved onto anaylysing the next most popular channel available to everyone across the UK due to not being a channel

only subscribed providers permit. Channel 4 in comparison to other channels has a larger variety into different forms of channels all providing different forms of media for example; music, films, TV programmes, news etc.

Between the different channels it is clear the recognition into the different genres and the popularity of these genres due to being consistent throughout the three options. Similarly to ITV, Channel 4 also provide a larger variety into purposes behind their documentaries not all being aimed to educate, however some also being dominantly to entertain.

Evaluation

Overall,Channel 4 had the largest amount of documentaries dominantly based on dogs. This shows us that this particular channel clearly has a mass audience in which it is directing these programmes at and therefore this channel would be best suited for our documentary to be shown on. Channel 4 also evidently show a variety of different forms of dog documentaries all focusing on different subjects and areas of a dog’s life, this would also support the acceptance of our own theme of dog documentary.