Form: Duration of Parts of Presentations
by
S. Bhagat

The Question

Initial and casual observation by class members revealed the duration of the parts of media presentations in Britain is far different from media experiences at home in the United States. Start and end times, number and length of commercial breaks, length of talk by the disc jockey all follow a different format in the United Kingdom. Unsure of the method used by the British to schedule programs, research was conducted to analyze the differences and conclude if there are truly any differences and if so, why.

Methods/Results: Television

As cable is still a developing medium within the United Kingdom, only the five terrestrial channels will be analyzed. The objective is to examine the start and end times and examine the consistency of program timing. In the United States all programs start and end on either the hour or half-hour mark, no matter what their total running time, the only exception being TBS which starts and ends at either five minutes past the hour or thirty-five minutes past the hour. Time Out magazine prints the television programming for the each week. The day analyzed here is Wednesday, October 20, 1999 the hours used are from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. because prime time changes radically each week and the daytime hours are most likely to remain somewhat consistent.

BBC 1- Breakfast news- 3 hours.

Kilroy, City Hospital- one hour.

Can’t Cook, House Invaders, Call My Bluff, Vets to the Rescue- 30 minutes

BBC News- 45 minutes

Neighbors- 25 minutes.

Snooker-Grand Prix- 1 hour and 20 minutes

Tweenies and ChuckleVision- 20 minutes each

Insides Out, Belfry Witches, Newsround, Blue Peter, and Neighbors- 25 minutes each

BBC 2- OU: Learning to Care- 30 minutes

Images of Education- 30 minutes

Orville and Cuddles- 5 minutes

Playdays- 20 minutes

Tazmania, The Lowdown –25 minutes each

Yogi’s Treasure Hunt- 20 minutes

Moomin- 25 minutes

Cat’s Eyes (aired twice), Words and Pictures, and Watch- 15 minutes

Teletubbies- 30 minutes

Tweenies, Numbertime, Look and Read, Megamaths, See you, See me, Science Zone- 20 minutes each.

Working Lunch- 30 minutes

Juniper Jungle- 10 minutes

The Experimenter- 20 minutes

Snooker- Grand Prix- 40 minutes

Arts and Crafts Show- 30 minutes

Westminster- one-hour and 10 minutes

BBC News- 10 minutes

Snooker- Grand Prix- 2 hours

ITV- GMTV- 3 hours and 25 minutes

Trisha- 35 minutes

This Morning- 40 minutes

Your Shout, Weather- 5 minutes

ITV Lunchtime News- 15 minutes

Rugby World Cup 99- 2 hours and 30 minutes

First Edition- 30 minutes

C4- Seasame Street- 1 hour

The Big Breakfast- 2 hours

The Cosby Show- 30 minutes

Schools- 2 hours and 30 minutes

I Dream of Jeannie- 30 minutes

All Sorts- 30 minutes

Show Me the Money- 35 minutes

20^th Century Hall of Fame- 5 minutes

Film: Move Over Darling- 1 hour and 50 minutes

Watercolour Challenge- 30 minutes

Fifteen to One- 30 minutes

Countdown- 25 minutes

Ricki Lake- 35 minutes

Pet Rescue- 30 minutes

C5- 5 News and Sport- 1 hour

Havakazoo- 30 minutes

Milkshake- 5 minutes

Bear in the Big Blue House combined with News Update- 25 minutes

Alvin and the Chipmunks- 30 minutes

Film: Grizzly Adams: The Treasure of the Bear- 1 hour 45 minutes

Great British Food- 5 minutes

Sunset Beach- 55 minutes

5 News at Noon- 30 minutes

Family Affairs combined with News Update- 30 minutes

Oprah Winfrey- 45 minutes

100% Gold combined with News Update- 30 minutes

Open House combined with News Update- 1 hour 15 minutes

Film: Love Can Be Murder- 1 hour 40 minutes

News- 5 minutes

Russell Grant’s Postcards- 15 minutes

100% Gold- 30 minutes

Conclusions: Television

It must be said that in addition to the radical and sporadic lengths of programs, several programs change each week. It seems very difficult to watch a show faithfully each week in the United Kingdom, and one never knows if they enter in the midst of a program how much they have already missed. This more than likely reflects that the British do not make ‘dates’ with their television programs like Americans do, thus programmers are not concerned with the precise half-hour to one hour formatting, this would be a good starting point for more research. Since television habits seem so sporadic compared to American standards, further research must be done with the British themselves to discover if the system works well for them as is, or if they would like to see anything changed.

Methods/Results: Radio

The radio programs within England are listed within both the Radio Times and Time Out magazines. However, radio is inherently a fluid medium where programs are meant to flow from one to the other with minimal awareness to the listener; this is true in both nations. Therefore, for these purposes, program lengths are of minimal importance, as they are not meant to be relevant in either nation. Commercial length and comparison will require tuning into the commercial stations and timing the length of commercial breaks.

In Britain there are thirteen national radio stations, five of which are BBC, therefore, there are no commercials on these stations only promotions of upcoming programs. The majority of commercial stations are of musical format in both nations. Genres of music on radio stations in the United Kingdom include the following:

-Scan in radio listing here, page 213 of Time Out magazine 11/13/99

(AM KHZ) etc.

Stations in the local Philadelphia area include Star 104.5 FM which plays pop music from the 80s and 90s, Y100FM which plays modern popular ‘alternative’ music, and 102.9FM which plays classic rock. These were selected to represent a variety of audiences. British times were recorded on a Thursday evening between the hours of 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. and the United States times were recorded by a willing participant on the following Wednesday, between the hours of 5:00 and 11:00 p.m. both were during the week of November 7^th. All times are given as a sample and represent one commercial break.

Commercial Break Lengths

Britain: Classic FM (100.9)- 1 minute, 20 seconds

Virgin Radio (105.8)- 2 minutes, 40 seconds

Capital Radio (95.8)- 2 minutes, 10 seconds

United States: Star (104.5)- 6 minutes, 25 seconds

WMGK (102.9)- 4 minutes, 5 seconds

Y100 (100.3)- 6 minutes, 5 seconds

Conclusions: Radio

There are inherently different systems of radio when comparing the United Kingdom and the United States. There are no national radio stations in the U.S., only nationally syndicated programs, such as Howard Stern. It is obvious that commercial breaks are two to three times longer in the U.S. Further research on the funding of radio in the U.K. must be done to ascertain why this phenomenon exists. Also the effect of the extra advertising time on listeners would make an interesting study and comparison between the two nations.

Methods/Results: Newspaper

No major differences were found in general word count for stories in the United Kingdom as opposed to the United States in casual observation. However, the class expressed an interest in the number and title of sections in the major Sunday edition as compared to the United States. For these purposes, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Times on Sunday were analyzed since both use a sectional format that is widened on Sunday editions, both papers also have high readerships in their cities, in fact, The Times is the highest selling upmarket daily in London (class lecture: Christopher Cook).

The Philadelphia Inquirer; Sunday Edition The Times on Sunday

A-World and Local News 1-National and International News

B-City and Region 2- Sport

C-Sports 3- Business

D-Sunday Review 4- Travel

E-Business 5- Property

F-Comics 6- Comics

G-Automotive 7- Classifieds

H-Employment 8- News Review

I-Arts and Entertainment 9- Money

J-Life (talk, style, party, faith) (Numerous magazine pull-outs

K-Books including Culture, The Sunday

L-Travel Times Magazine, Parent Power

M-Dining and Style)

N-New Homes

O-Real Estate

Conclusions: Newspaper

Most of the same general topics are covered in the sections of Sunday newspaper editions within both nations. Although several topics covered in the U.S. newspaper are not included in the U.K. (ie. Books, Dining, Life, Automotive) they may be of minimal interest to U.K. readers or, an alternative explanation may be that the newspaper expects that the consumers are receiving this information elsewhere. Also, the reasoning and effects of the magazine style pull-out additions in the U.K. paper require evaluation, true some are contained within papers in the U.S. but the number is greater in Britain.

Methods/Results: Film

The length of the films produced represents numerous cultural, social, and psychological implications, such as the amount of capital available for production costs, expectancy of audience desires for resolution and attention span. Examinations of the top ten box office lists in The Guardian newspaper (10/29/99) as well as Time Out (10/ 24/99) magazines print running times and the nation from which the film was made.

Twenty-nine American films were averaged together, the longest running time was The Matrix which was 136 minutes, and the shortest was South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut at 81 minutes. The total average for American films was 107 minutes.

Five British films were listed in Time Out the shortest running time was 91 minutes for Mad Cows and the longest was Tea With Mussolini at 117 minutes. The averaged time for British films is 103 minutes.

Conclusions: Film

Between the two nations, only a four minute difference existed between the averaged times. The most remarkable aspect of the study was the sheer number of American films within the British market. In fact, all of the top ten movies in the United Kingdom for the week of November 13, 1999 are from Hollywood.