BBC 3's audience demographic is around 19-25. Studies have decided, rightly or wrongly, that this age group doesn't watch television, but prefer gaming and the internet. Because they fear that this age group, as it grows, will learn to live without television, certainly all of the UK channels are desperate to encourage a TV watching habit within this generation, otherwise, no one will be watching in the next 15-25 years.
It's so far, untrue. Whilst there is more internet, gaming and mobile phone use, viewing figures have not fallen as feared. The TV is still on, just in the background.
In my opinion, this is why you have shows like this, desperate attempts to capture the imagination of this nonchalant and hip demographic. All the UK channels are doing it. Quick edits, fast set pieces, attractive cast, repetition to avoid some-one losing the story because they received a text and a cathartic ending, so no matter what happened during the show, if you catch the last couple of minutes, you'll feel a sense of satisfaction.
Until the TV channels credit it's younger viewers with the intelligence it deserves, we will keep getting half baked shows like this that only serve to alienate the older established watcher and patronise those that it aims to entertain.
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Kmadden2004
16 years ago
Decent post, allseeing. Reminded me of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe report on "yoof TV" where he ran his own focus group of 'young adults' aged between 19-24 and found that they had quite a mature taste in what they watched (they said they preferred sitcoms like Yes, Minister and Fawlty Towers over shows like Skins).
The gist of his report was that 'young adults' aren't some fringe demographic of dunderheads who just sit open-mouthed, but are actually as mature an audience as any other and that if you make quality programming for them they will actually watch it.
It's just a pity nobody at BBC3 watches BBC4, otherwise somebody might of taken note and intervened during the production of Spooks: Code 9 to give the show-runners a good slap...
Baba O'Riley... the best song in the world
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trebor_trancheplanete
16 years ago
allseeing wrote:
> BBC 3's audience demographic is around 19-25. Studies have decided, rightly or wrongly,
> that this age group doesn't watch television, but prefer gaming and the internet.
Interesting analysis, but the remedy proposed by the BBC won't cure that problem they perceive.
For one thing, the average age of video gamers is around 38. But for the sake of argument, let's say it's 19-25 as they perceive it.
What sort of games do these people play? presumably hot tiles such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Gears of War, Halo etc... Do these games feature 19 years olds? no. The main characters look more like people in their 40's.
If the BBC thinks that simply populating shows with 19 year olds is going to somehow attack gamers, I'd say they are shooting themselves in the foot. Today's audiences (whether it's film, TV or games) wants more realism in their entertainment. Even in fantasy films such as The Dark Night, part of the appeal is that the fantasy world seems possible.
Spooks Code 9 seems to go against notions of plausibility and realism that may turn out to be it's ultimate downfall.
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combatreview
16 years ago
I'm old fashioned and clearly deluded, because... you know... I seem to remember that when I was 19 to 25 I didn't solely watch stuff about 19 to 25 year olds. In fact, I can't remember a time when I ever only watched stuff about people my age. How many children loved Star Wars despite being about ten years younger than their obvious identification figure, Luke Skywalker?
I think by the time a person is 19, they're probably capable of wanting to watch something because it's good and/or entertaining, not because of the contrived youthfulness of the cast.
Perhaps if BBC3 starts worrying about making programmes that are 'good' instead of making programmes that have to be twisted to fit a demographic, they might actually have some successes on their hands.
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