The last MRG meeting looked at what role media research played in the launch and development of Channel 5. The meeting was held by Nick Milligan, director of sales, and David Harrison, research director, at Channel 5, and was chaired by Rosemary Taylor.
C5’s performance set against the original predictions for the station were positive. After the Channel’s transmitter boost in Croydon it reached its 78% target reach, and broke the 5% viewing barrier for the first time. In addition to this, Channel 5 investors, including CLT-ufa, United News and Media, Pearson and Warburg, Pincus & Co had recouped their investment, and the channel is expected to move into profit shortly.
Aside from BARB, Channel 5 also brought into play Mediaspan research and a trend monitor as part of its research tools. Findings from the Channel 5 trend monitor, revealed that the channel’s audience is predominantly young and male. Channel 5 was found to be considerably more downmarket than ITV, and subsequently missed out a substantial band of middle class viewing homes.
The channel was also criticised for not being ‘deep’ enough, for example suffering from a degree of superficiality. This could be due to the Channel’s young audience and, as David Harrison admitted, although the channel wishes to attract viewers from all age groups, it is not making programmes targeting over 55s, for example.
The trend monitor also revealed the channel to be more appealing to the cable and satellite audience, placing it in the same market as multi-channel television. This is something which was stressed as very important in an age of multichannel television that is set to increase with the arrival of digital TV. Channel 5 certainly views itself as one channel amongst many, rather than simply a fifth terrestrial broadcaster, and so decided to have the corner-screen logo running throughout its programmes.
