Television is a technology that has advanced tremendously from the time it was invented up till now, and has a promising future ahead. Television is a means of entertainment, information and even income for billions of people across the world. It is an electronic means of mass communication but also an industry, an industry that has its own marketing plan. It is market plan that decides which type of show will be aired at what time, and to whom it will be targeted towards. Therefore, a lot of planning goes into a new television channel before it goes “ on air”.
The two popular methods of providing television broadcast to audiences are through cable and satellite. Cable television is the broadcasting through radio frequency signals to televisions by cables/wires. These cables are usually in the form of optical fibers or coaxial cables. Satellite television, on the other hand, is the deliverance of transmission through satellite communication.
Unlike cable television, this process is wire-less and involves the broadcasting company to send the transmission through satellite and then the consumer receives it by a satellite dish. Satellite television has a much higher range then cable, as it is wireless. Cable television has a restricted range, due to its mechanics. When it comes to formats in television, there are many formats of television shows presently.
Some of them include; reality, music, news and sports. MTV is an example of music format television channel, as it only has music related shows. A television channel’s format can be classified by the content it broadcasts. The segmentation of a channel is the division of content throughout the day to serve a different market. “ These partitions could be made in terms of gender, age and social class” (Seiter, 12).
A single television channel may need segmentation to serve different audience throughout the day, for instance mid-day programming targeted towards housewives and evening programming for employed adults. Another form of segmentation in television is the forming of a television channel to target a particular market throughout the day. Cooking channels such as BBC FOOD, is a television channel that is catering to a segment of the total market. Now segmentation in cable and satellite television may vary, because of their respective ranges and the number of people who receive their transmission.
Satellite television has a worldwide range, its transmission is broadcasted to various countries, and therefore the segmentation of television channels that are aired on satellite must be global in nature. Segmentation in cable television is much detailed and specific in nature because of its less region of coverage. This is just the starting, with Podcasts and online-television channels, television will soon be serving a much more segmented market. Devices that record and store television shows that you would like and cannot watch when they are aired, for your convenience, are already in market.
Television’s audience is increasing with population and coverage, and television networks are exploring newfound segments of the market to better serve the audience. DMC. TV is an example of a television channel that has a segmented audience. It is based in Thailand, and aims to telecast the religious and cultural values of through 24 hour transmission of documentaries, songs and cartoons.
It was the first Buddhist television channel in South Asia, and attained so much success that it even won 12 Telly Awards in July 2007 (DMC TV). Baby First TV is another television channel, which has a target audience of babies from 0 to 3 years old. It is broadcasted in North America, Europe and several other countries. Although it faced some criticism by many child psychologists, the television proved to be a success in informing and help bringing up children across the world (Baby TV) . One must appreciate the efforts of one television network, which dedicated its workforce and time to serve the segment of world population that has the least content targeted towards them. These are few of the television channels that one could not imagine would exist or predict to be successful in their regions, but that is the power of television.
The future does not just bring new technology; it brings new ideas and ways of communicating with the masses. Every country may it be developed or under developed, has an audience that is always increasing and therefore with it, segments of television channels must increase. Like John Lennon, a famous musician and former Beatles (a popular music group) member once said, “ If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace. ”
