Unit 1: BBC Research:

 BBC Research:

Who are the BBC?

The BBC is a UK public service broadcaster, funded by the licence free paid by UK Households; this service provides ten national TV channels, regional TV programmes, an internet TV Service (BBC3), 10 National radio stations, 40 local radio stations and a website for its audience. The service was established by Royal Charter. 

What is BBC3?

BBC Three is a UK Internet television service operated by the BBC, this was launched on the 16th of February in 2003, serving as a replacement for the linear BBC Three television channel, this service was discontinued on the same day BBC Three was released. This service provides numerous streaming television shows and web series, the services remit was to provide innovative programming, most of these being aimed at the demographic of 16-34 year olds; most of its work focusing in comedy and documentary programming genres. Successful programmes from BBC Three can include: FleaBag, 15 Storey's High, Nighty Night, Catterick, Him and Her, Bodies and many more; 90% of the BBC Three's content is made up of output that originated from the UK.

What are the audience considerations:

The BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) is responsible for delivering the UK’s television audience measurement currency, in which they commission research companies to collect data that represent the viewing behaviour from the BBC3 audience. On their website they describe that they find:

• Who is watching?
• What are they watching?
• When are they watching?
• Which screen are they watching on?
• How did the content get to the screen?

As well as the website described they have two sources of data, one being 'people based' and the other being 'device based census data for online TV viewing'. 

Below I have included research from their website, what shows were most popular by genre, demographic, age group, time of day (or events, e.g. Christmas), multichannel's and pre-broadcasts.  (https://www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/analysis/annual-viewing-report/)

What is a TV Drama?

A TV Drama is a genre of a show that runs in series and episodes that continues a plot from each one, this is not always the case however, for example shows such as 'Black Mirror' never follow on from their last episode and start a new narrative. Episodes in a TV Drama may be self contained or stretched out over numerous episodes; many plots within a TV Drama follow a main character and their story within their life. Common TV Drama's that are popular are: Death in Paradise, All creatures Great and Small, Gentleman Jack, Your Honor, Line of Duty, and mroe many more.

BBC Three's Competitors:

BBC Three's competitors consist of ITV, Sky, Fox News and CNN, most of these being news channels and TV Show providers. All of these provide similar or even the same content by streaming the same shows or newscasts but just only in different locations, different character/presenters and possible narratives but told in the same way. BBC Three's competitors are not only in the UK and so demonstrates their competitive filed is large and so they're broadcasts need to stand out.

Conventions of Television Drama:

Theorists:

Vladimir Prop suggested that there are seven different roles in a show, these being: 'the hero', this character is created to restore the equilibrium within a narratives problem, 'the villain', a character who's only task is to disrupt the equilibrium in the narrative, 'the donor', a individual who gives the hero advice, information or a object that will help them on their journey to restoring equilibrium, 'the princess or prince' is the character who is in need of help or saving from danger of the villain, 'the dispatcher', the character who essentially starts the narrative by sending the hero on their quest and finally the 'false hero', a character who soul purpose is to undermine the hero's quest by pretending to aid him, for example the character 'Iago' in the play 'Othello', they are then often unmasked or they're true identity/motives are revealed at the end of the plot. 

Moreover, 'Tzvetan Todorov' suggested there are five components in a narrative that make up the plot, this being: 'the equilibrium', a sense of normality and calm before a disaster strikes, 'the disruption', the point in which the story changes due to a tragic event that will then drive the hero, 'the recognition', this being the realisation of the disruption and the realisation that it needs to be fixed, 'the attempt', this category suggests the hero tries to repair the disruption and restore peace and normality and finally the 'restoration of a new equilibrium' is as simple as it sounds, the category being the plots dilemma's are solved and all goes back to normal.

Moreover, the theorist, 'Claude Lévi-Strauss' suggested that in literature and film alike, they're narratives will always be binary opposition’s; this meaning that opposite things such as characters, settings, dilemma's, objects, are working against each other to create tension. This can be seen in symbolic terms of good vs evil, dark vs light, weak vs powerful, etc.

However, the most basic structure of TV Drama can be: 

The basic conventions of a TV Drama would be to have a set of characters (if it is not soley  based around one singular protagonist), these will drive the story and become key parts of the show depending on their importance within the plot. These can then range from the basic conventions of a character: the antagonist, the protagonist, the love interest(s), the confidant, the deuteragonists and a foil. We then have narrative, a crucial part of the drama, although each film or show has one, I feel in drama the plot is the one thing that makes the show worth watching; wether it be a scandal, murder mystery or any sub genre that will  provokes drama or thrill to its audience, it's the most poignant part of a script that makes us want to watch it. Next, we have the dialogue, the speech between characters develops the story and allows us insight into what is happening, in well done drama's this will consistently be interesting and drives us to feel connected to our protagonists. Moreover, we also experience sound and music, sound differs from music by being the background or foreground audio, this could range from being for a example, a car crash, a tree branch falling, or even a cup being put down; music then creates an emotive reaction from its audience, if its sophisticatedly done that is, within a drama the music will be detrimental, a catalyst for the build up of the narrative. Lastly, there is the setting, this influences the mise-en-scene on camera; the setting will establish where and when the narrative is set and can be used in many ways to hide symbols, easter eggs and metaphorical uses of cinematography to establish underlying themes within the plot or characters. 

The structure of a average TV Drama episode or series of episodes can be broken down into:

• The Teaser - This will usually be a short opening that introduces you to a character, setting, object, etc. This can be exemplified in the short opening of the Walking Dead, in which the main character Rick Grimes begins to understand the situation he is when he wakes up from his coma induced state to an apocalyptic, zombie ridden world.
• Act 1 - This introduce the current story at hand. You’ve teased the peril, struggle, conflict, or situation that the episode will tackle, but now you’re getting things really started by setting the stage as far as where the characters are and what is leading up to the point of the next act where they will be confronted by the situation at hand. The end of the first act also offers a chance to leave a solid first cliffhanger or hook as well, which is what you really want to do to create an interesting narrative.
• Act 2 - This is where the characters are dealing with the conflict, they're trying to figure what to do and struggling with the situation. Much like the beginning of the second act of a feature film script, the characters often still have some hope or chance. By the end of this act, the audience feels like the characters may figure things out — until, that is, another hook is introduced that flips that hope or chance on its head, forcing the characters to face the fact that they may not succeed.
• Act 3 - This is where the characters are at their lowest point and the bad guys or conflict is winning. Where the second act gave the audience hope that they’d figure it out, all too often the third act is where that hope was proven to be false. By the end hook of this act, audiences will want to tune in to see how the characters will prevail despite such odds against them.
• Act 4 - This is where the characters, against all odds, begin to prevail again. They start to triumph and win. They’ve likely learned from their missteps in the first and second act and now they’re applying that to the conflict at hand.
• Act 5 - This is the closure. Some shows actually end with the fourth act while others end the fourth act with a significant cliffhanger or hook and then use the fifth act to close things up with a finale of sorts.