BBC and Channel 4 Research

The BBC is one of the largest television companies in the world, formally known as the British Broadcasting Company there aim is to inform, educate and entertain viewers.

BBC and Channel 4 Research

The BBC has a massive range of TV shows ranging from Top Gear to Planet Earth, and it is evident when you watch these two TV shows that they are to particularly good at informing and entertaining. As a group researching the BBC we found that there target audience is incredibly broad for instance I watch Top Gear at the age of 18 and I also no my dad and granddad also watch it, This trend is the same with documentaries such as Planet Earth and Louis Theroux.

The BBC originally formed in 1934 meaning that they have a massive amount of knowledge in the media, to keep on top of media trends the BBC has a working capital above 1 billion pounds. The BBC try’s to make all of it’s TV shows accessible to everybody and in 2008 they announced that they had achieved a target of 10% of all it’s TV shows were available with subtitles and audio description, making footage easier to understand for deaf and partially blind viewers.

The BBC constantly pumps money into technologies, that will improve there image and benefit viewers, this also involves recent breakthroughs in HD and 3D. The BBC now offers a high proportion of it’s channels in HD and a growing number of it’s channels in 3D. BBC News is a good example of a TV show that is easily accessible, this is because they don’t just have the main broadcast but also they footage shot in different areas of the country such as BBC points west, this localises the show

The BBC also has to broadcast a certain amount of religious TV shows such as songs of praise so they can involve that sector of the audience. The BBC is not bias to any controversial issues in the media and does not share an opinion unless there is a clear reason for it such as animal welfare. There are often live debates on Shows such as BBC news and BBC question time where the public can share there opinion, this helps to engage audiences.

Clearly the BBC takes all of the necessary steps to involve everybody and not to alienate certain people, this strategy towards the media has proved incredibly successful meaning the BBC is now a global television service.

The Channel 4 Broadcasting Corporation began in 1982 and although it is mainly self funded it is a public service ran by the Channel 4 Television Corporation, a public body formed in 1990.

Since Channel 4 began it has produced a host of extra channels such as Film4, Channel 4 HD, E4, 4Music and More4. These channels have been created to assure that the company are able to access a wide audience. Unlike the BBC channel 4 does express opinions on certain matters and it’s documentaries often shows a comedic side as well as a serious side. Documentaries created by Channel 4 such as Steve Jobs: iChanged The World, and Sarah Palin: You Betcha! Show a comedic or opinionated side this is even evident in the title. Some people may not like this but Channel 4 base there documentaries on what the majority audience want to see

Channel 4 does try accommodate people in it’s audience with disabilities, by showing subtitles in some TV sows, however it does not have the same amount of money to spend on technologies that are able to do this unlike the BBC. Channel 4 does present HD channels showing that they are also making the move into a more modern world but due to less working capital they cannot do this in the same way as the BBC can, meaning that they cannot dominate that market place.

Channel 4 does provide basic news services however these are not international and often not completely national, for instance they do not do regional broadcasting meaning that some members of the audience are not always involved. Unfortunately as new markets such as HD and 3D begin to open there have been catastrophic consequences for Channel 4, there profits fell by 70% between 2005 and 2006. This is also because Channel for cannot follow trends in the media as easily as the BBC due to it’s funding and meaning.

To conclude Channel 4 is more opinionated than the BBC and often bases documentaries around comedy segregating there audience, Channel 4 does make an effort to involve members of it’s audience with disabilities but cannot do this in the same way as the BBC, also Channel 4 does not have rules dictating that it must involve races and religions meaning that it does not have to broadcast a set amount of shows for it’s religious viewers.

Throughout the production of our documentary we have researched the BBC as we wanted What The Cluck to replicate what would be seen on BBC 1 or BBC 2. However as our production came together we realised that through no fault of our own What The Cluck started to resemble a Channel 4 documentary.

The comedic elements to our footage (whilst in the kitchen) as well as present filming affects such as hand held camera (on the farm) were much more similar to filming styles found on Channel 4 than on the BBC. Also when we went to film at Cabot Circus we realised that the audience that was more interested in the topic we had chosen for our documentary was a younger generation, Whilst we attracted a few elderly people, it was the younger audience (15-25) that found the topic more interesting, they found the questions more fun whilst showing an interest in the documentary and the questions we asked.

During the composition of our documentary we realised that we were using a lot of ambient diagetic sound, (more commonly found in channel 4 documentaries) as well as natural lighting. In our group we wanted to get quite a few interviews, most of these were shot on a hand held camera in a similar way to how interviews were composed in Jeffery Blitzes Spellbound, very few of our interviews were filmed on a tri-pod. The reason we shot using a hand held camera is because we wanted to create present affects, meaning the audience are more aware of the maker.

As a group we felt that this meant we could more closely relate to our audience. We have decided as a group to keep a certain level of professionalism about us in the production of What the Cluck and this is evident in how we have pieced together our footage. We have used plane bold titles and subtitles and have placed them in the corner of the screen so we do not draw our viewers eyes away from the footage that could be portraying quite a serious message about animal welfare. We have also used archive footage to show a battery farm, during this section of the documentary we have kept incredibly serious as we understand that animal welfare is nothing to joke about. In conclusion we have decided that our documentary more closely relates to Channel 4 instead of the BBC and we have therefore decided to replicate a Channel 4 documentary as closely as possible.