Research and Planning : E4 and the Brief

E4 is part of the Channel Four Television Corporation, It was launched as a pay-TV companion to channel 4 on the 18th January 2001. The E in E4 stands for entertainment and the channel is actually aimed at 15-35 year old. Hundreds of shows are shown on the channel but some of the most famous and well known shows are The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, The Inbetweeners, Made in Chelsea, Misfits, Friends and my personal favourite Skins, although the list does not end there. E4's primary target audience would be both sex's between the age of 15-35, however the demographics of the shows change depending on the time of day, for example The Inbetweeners wouldn't be shown during the day as its primary target audience (teenagers) would be at either school of college so it would be shown at around 9 as this is when they would be able to watch it. The Inbetweeners holds E4's for its most successful broadcast which pulled in over 3.7 million viewers on one episode. E4's secondary audience would be pretty much everybody else apart from their primary target audience. The way they would do this by putting on other shows that not only appeal to their primary audience but also appeal to their secondary audience by putting on shows such as Friends or Rules of Engagement. They would also look at the demographics of their audience (age, gender etc) and see what types of show suits the target audience best, for example the show Skins is best suited for teens as its a show about teenagers going through college and basically living the student dream, where as a show such a Rules of Engagement may not appeal to the same audience. E4 is not the only channel that the Channel four Television Corporation owns. Other channels include obviously Channel 4 and is known for being a national public service channel in the UK. The target audience would probably be slightly older compared to E4 as Channel 4 shows a lot of documentaries such as Big Brother until recently and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. More4 is another channel the corporation owns. More4 is aimed at 35-60 year olds, it shows news and nightly discussion programmes such as More4 News which is an extension of Channel 4 News however this programme looks behind the headlines. 4Music is also another huge channel within the UK and was able to pull in some massive names within the music industry, on its first episode it was able to have The Sugarbabes perform and at the time they were the biggest girl band within the UK. Again this channel would be aimed at people that like chart music and mostly teenagers.

An E Sting is a short claymation, animation or live action video that people make for E4 to use when the adverts are shown. They allow aspiring animators or even film makers to be creative and get their idea on the TV. This can look very good on a CV and help you get other jobs as its quite an achievement to have an E Sting that makes it on the television. The basic purpose is to add it in so its like an advert however it also promotes upcoming or unknown film makers and animators.



This ESting is called 4 The Birds. It involves live action and also animation within it.