This article appeared in Mediaguardian the other week, and highlighted the difficulty that C4 have had with The Sopranos. A massive critical success, but less so for audiences.
I don’t think that it’s down to the quality of the programme as much as the thoroughly screwed up scheduling it’s suffered. C4/E4 have tried to streamline things a little more of late, but the fundamental problem is that viewers don’t know where they are with the series. I have a friend who totally gave up on watching in on TV, and instead just watches the DVDs (as many do with 24).
Some get to see the programme early on E4, if it hasn’t been bumped around the schedule by whatever putrid reality format is sucking up most of that channel’s peak airtime. Then the show arrives on C4 where it can’t have the same buzz.
Buzz is really important. You feel like you’re in on something when it starts. But if it was on pay TV a few months ago, then unless it’s a mass market programme such as The Simpsons (about which C4 can make a big play) or Friends, then instead of being fresh programming, it’s more reheated. This is particularly the case if C4 is trying to promote a programme that it has already cross promoted earlier as being on its pay sister station.
We live in a very cluttered media world, so a new series has to be highlighted as such. Given a clear start time – say 10.00pm. And stick with it for the entire run. Don’t shift it about.
Unless a programme has a potentially massive audience, running a show on both pay TV and then terrestrial TV at a later date does not help the overall audience. If there’s a niche audience to begin with, then you’re splitting it.
Tomorrow night Bodies begins on BBC2. This would have had far more impact on the audience had it not already aired on BBC3 earlier in the summer, when the TV reviewers had their say. Now it’ll slip out on air and although it’s being trailed, it won’t get the newspaper and magazine support it needs as it’s already had it when most of the potential audience couldn’t watch it anyway.
And while I’m talking about scheduling issues, why exactly did E4 even buy Curb Your Enthusiasm if they only ever planned to run it at 12.10am (as the final episode did last Thursday)? And why is BBC Three running their new drama series, Conviction, in double hour long episodes? If it was made in hour chunks, shouldn’t that be how it’s shown?