Analysing the Competition

I have rejected two of my 3 ideas and have chosen the topic "Why is Graphics  a niche subject?" I have gone with the route of education so for this part of the Unit I will need to find competing documentaries and try and put out content which will be a better alternative to the current educational documentary. I will be using B.A.R.B to get some statistics on each programme I find so that I can come up with a solution to what time I can show the documentary and what target audiences will be watching at that time.  I just don't need to use a single channel but I will have to browse a variety of channels such as BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC Three, Channel 4, Dave etc.

In order to find out my competing documentaries which currently go on TV I will need to search through he Internet for suitable times, Target Audience & which shows that are similar to mine or have a sort of connection with my Documentary of why graphics is a niche subject. By using B.A.R.B I will be finding relatively similar Factual TV Programmes which correlate to mine and could be a possible rival towards my documentary.




The first programme which could be a potential rival could be educating the East End as it is mainly focused on educating and in this case related to my documentary. The programme currently goes on channel 4. According to TvGuide this programme currently goes on from 9:00 pm till 10:00 pm which is an hour long. The target audience here would be teenagers as they do stay up late and watch Television, the age range for the target audience would be 16-19 as it relates to them literally. The show is based on teenagers' lives which they can relate to. This programme shows a daily school day from Frederick Bremer School. Last week "Educating the East End" received 1,800(Thousand views). This information was from Broadcasters' audience research board (BARB). This is what they had stated for the past week EDUCATING THE EAST END (Thu 09 Oct 2014, 2101) 1,800 (Thousands of viewers). The similarities between this shows format will be the way I portray school children throughout the documentary. During a graphics lesson I will be letting the camera role and using voice overs to talk about how the lesson went and see why students take graphics itself. Also another similarity would be that I would be mainly basing the topic in school as it is a subject that is taken during the school career.

In terms of beating the viewing figures for "educating the east end" I would try and implement more realistic videos such as letting the lesson go by on its own and analysing what people like about graphics as a subject. I will try and get in some interviews from people who have taken graphics to get they're views on why they took graphics as a whole. Also I will try and use a variety of locations to keep the viewers of the documentary engaged. This will hopefully give me the edge of a more realistic documentary compared to "Educating the East End" where they're shows are quite scripted.

The Broadcast Figures

Another possible competing show would be Jamie Olivers' show called "Jamie's Dream School" where he tries to get students to give education a second chance. He uses his cooking skills to tell the students why education is so important and why you need to try and motivate yourself into going to school . This programme is shown on Channel 4 at 9PM according to The Guardian. Also viewing figures are shown on this website as BARB does not provide the statistics from this programme due to the time it was made which was 3 Years ago. The guardian states that Jamie Olivers' show attracted 5.8% of the 9PM-10PM category of Channel 4 making that 1.4 Million viewers. They say this is not the ideal number from Channel 4's point of view.

The similarities I hold with this show is that mine is based on school careers and education. Here we can see that Jamie is teaching a group of teenagers who are very similar to my target audience to my documentary which would be ideal. Also he is teaching a lesson which I plan to record in documentary as it will show why the young people enjoy taking graphics as mentioned above and come to a conclusion on why people do not like Graphics in general.

The try and beat this show in terms of viewing figures I could try to get the teacher to set-up some cameras around the whole classroom and see how a lesson actually goes. This meaning I will need to get the teachers' consent in me recording students for my documentary. Also the students will be informed there are cameras around the room but to tell them that they are there for security purposes.



The final show that will compete with my documentary would be Brian Clarke : Colourig Light (An Artist Apart). This documentary is about a man named Brian Clarke who is one of the world's best stained glass artists and who has collaborated with many famous people in art. This show airs at 10PM on BBC Four and runs for 60 Mins. As this was a 3 part documentary there weren't any viewing figures available for me to find as it was broad-casted 3 Years ago. Nevertheless there are similarities which I have found which can relate to my documentary.

At the start of the clip provided we can see that he shows the viewer the location they are at which I will be doing with a variety of locations.Also he uses images in a little montage to show the audience what he is talking about (Voice Of God). This will be implemented in mine showing the viewers some previous pieces of art and Graphics to be in my documentary. Also I will be ravelling around London to find places which sell Graphics or teach graphics. A 1:19 we can see Brain Clarke sitting on a chair and talking to the viewers which I could again implement into my documentary.

In terms of beating this programme I will try and make the documentary more active rather than just doing constant voice overs for the viewers. I will try and make the documentary lively and engaging to watch by doing activities with other students my age and seeing how they cope with doing graphics whether they're a graphics student or not.

My overall conclusion is that these shows are very similar to my documentary and I will be using these as a type of guide to get ideas which I could implement into my documentary. Also find ideas and improve them to make my documentary more competing for the viewing figures. Through facts and figures I have learnt that the best viewing times for my show would be at 9PM as these shows clearly state that they have been shown at those times. Also the target audience at that times are relatively similar to mine which are  an age group from 17-19 because those shows include the target audience I am aiming for. So this means my show will air from 9PM to 10PM with a target audience of 17-19 Year Olds.