MEST2 Update - BBC 3 & E4 Breakdown

E4

Channel History

E4 began transmission on TV on 18th January 2001, at 8.30pm with a night presented by Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen). 

E4's first broadcast was in 2005, which was a programme that had a countdown of twenty discussed controversial moments in TV history. 

They screen historical and dramatic programmes, notable such as:

• Friends
• The Inbetweeners
• Hollyoaks
• Big Bang Theory
• How I Met Your Mother

In 1996, Channel 4 (main institution) bought the rights to screen the popular American sitcom, this deemed to be very popular within the UK audience. 

Target Audience

The main demographics are shown:

• under 18s (63%)  
• 18-24 (29%)
• 25-34 (5%)
• 35-44 (2%)
• 45-54 (1%) 
• 55+ (0%)

Female 59% Male 41%

Demographic is the particular information which divides specific class types, gender, age and race. Every programme on the channel is targeted at a specific audience, such as young teens, which is a target of many programmes which are screened on E4. The E4 viewers are significantly more young females aged 16-24. This particularly demographic is targeted as E4 screens a lot of good quality and highly comedic programmes, which are also screened on E4 +1, which helps the audience catch up with a repeat of the programme one hour after it's original screening time. E4 use advertising highly on their channel as their main demographic is people that use the internet highly, sociable and likely to be well connected with their friends. 

BBC Three

Renamed during a period where they were renaming their BBC Knowledge, which is now known as BBC Four and their BBC Choice to now be named BBC Three. 

Drama, Comedy and Documentaries

Notable Programmes

• Top Boy
• Doctor Who
• Being Human
• Family Guy
• American Dad 
• Bad Education

The channel airs many different programmes and comedies, ones such as Bad Education, which became popular within younger teens which attended high school as it reflected on a poorly-coordinated teacher working at a high school in a suburban London area, which was created and written by Jack Whitehall and directed by Christine Gernon. Another example of a successful programme is Doctor Who which lead to it being screened on other BBC channels and also having films being based on it, being released in the mid-1990s. 

Target audience statistics

• In 2008 it reached 26.3% of 16.34 year olds in digital home
• 2.6% share of 15-34 years old audience
• 1.4% of the whole population

BBC Three's main focus is to discipline the young and their main demographic is 16-34 years old people. These are the people they wish to influence as they have a young mindset.