It Takes Savvy Scheduling For Linear TV To Survive & Thrive In An On-Demand World
Words by Cameron Gray
Linear TV and schedules, like Channel 4 and Countdown or Ant and Dec, have a symbiotic relationship: one cannot exist without the other.
Scheduling is television’s architecture. It guides and curates. It can be wildly contradictive and warmly familiar. Its motives can be competitive, commercial, or for public good. Its results can be unforgiving. It’s often misunderstood yet more important than ever.
Ofcom’s 2022 Media Nations report set out a bleak future with broadcast TV viewing on sets falling 5% compared to 2019 levels, resuming the descent temporarily disrupted by Covid-19 and hastened by rapid SVOD expansion.
It’s somewhat ironic that a remake of a BBC show, House of Cards, is generously credited as the first shot fired in the streaming wars. Just shy of ten years since its Netflix launch, the BBC is looking towards a future with “fewer linear broadcast services,” as set out by Tim Davie in a December address, and ITV has embraced a “digital first windowing strategy,” with high profile commissions swerving linear for ITVX launches.
The act, or art, of scheduling has a vital role to play in sustaining a healthy linear landscape. Viewers are served an abundance of programmes across multiple platforms but are overwhelmed by infinite scroll and choice. It’s in this vast, video forest that scheduled, linear TV can maintain a clearing.
The schedule was born of technical necessity rather than strategy but evolved to give shape to programmes and meaning in their placement. A streamer’s most carefully curated rail, striking artwork, or advanced algorithm must compete with years of history woven into each slot. Securing Sunday nine o’clock on BBC One is, for example, a statement of quality with viewers, as shows stand on the shoulders of acclaimed series like The Night Manager, Line of Duty, and the original House of Cards.
This year’s first inhabitant of that slot also demonstrated scheduling’s ability to create shared, cultural moments. A traditional weekly release ensured audiences returned to Happy Valley to follow Sergeant Catherine Cawood’s story live, unspoiled, and together. Streaming encourages viewing silos, which mostly retires the watercooler effect, leaving the zeitgeist appeal as linear TV’s most potent force. After all, as many Britons watched Matt Hancock delivering public health messages during the pandemic as they did witness him eat a cow’s anus on I’m a Celebrity.
The TV event of last year belonged to the state funeral of HM The Queen. Broadcasters were praised for their sensitive handling, where obituaries, rolling news and soft programming replaced whole schedules. At its peak, 28 million people tuned in to the service according to the BBC, following days of coverage that turned respectful queueing into must-see TV.
At its best, scheduling reflects the mood and concerns of the nation as Brian Cox railed against the wealth gap on Channel 5’s How the Other Half Live on the day of the Autumn budget and Martin Lewis became an ITV staple as the cost-of-living crisis surged. At its very best though, and regularly with fortuitous timing, scheduling predicts what will grasp the national conscious. Frozen Planet II, for instance, returned after a near eleven-year hiatus with a poignant display on the devastation of climate change in the wake of the UK’s record high temperature less than eight weeks earlier.
Streamers equally look to capitalise on and start cultural conversations, with the much-discussed fifth series of The Crown serving as an appetiser to the much-debated docuseries Harry & Meghan. Drama and documentary are two components of Netflix’s strategy to be a pay TV package in one, though linear channels possess an entire programming slate that streamers’ library-driven model ignores in daytime television.
Often derided but hugely undervalued, broadcasters have fashioned daytime schedules through a formula of comforting consistency. Breakfast shows provide a daily dose of news, views, and sporadic outrage. Magazine shows have an important dialogue with audiences: their voices heard, questions answered, and life stories shared and treated largely seriously. Property, antiques, and quiz shows also put the representative public at the heart of the narrative, with small, everyday victories, like winning a prize fund or turning a profit on an antique clock.
Scattered among these are titles providing escapism, whether through pulpy made-for-TV movies or property-seeking in the country, coast, or sun. It’s unsurprising then that Neighbours, as melodramatic as it is sunny, is taking residence on Amazon’s Freevee. Soaps compliment the catalogue approach but also bring a dedicated viewership and accordingly act as building blocks for schedules, moveable only in necessary circumstances or channels face righteous backlash.
Coronation Street has been on British screens since before the advent of colour television, due in part to identifiable characters and relatable issues. Broadcasters have a unique capability and public service commitment to bring the masses to important topics, with programmes’ impact amplified by their scheduling. Emily Atack, Jeremy Paxman, and David Baddiel all headlined documentaries in prominent slots on matters as wide-ranging as online sexual harassment, Parkinson’s disease, and antisemitism, respectively. On the scripted side, Channel 4’s Consent depicted social media, porn culture and crossed boundaries; a topic similarly covered in Coronation Street itself.
The challenge for broadcasters is balancing the historic needs and expectations of the schedule against ever-shifting viewing habits whilst facing commercial and political headwinds, both externally and internally. Disruption looks to continue to be the wider TV industry’s organizing principle, but opportunities are to be found in the ensuing turmoil. A winter World Cup upended the prime broadcast season, but a shrewd post-match launch and a three-a-week strip helped propel The Traitors into a rare, new terrestrial reality hit.
Through regular box sets, BVODs are behaving more like SVODs. Through increasing weekly or split season rollouts on SVODs, vice versa. FAST channels, though in their infancy and generally bundled around one idea, are beginning to challenge schedules and linear TV’s interdependency. Schedules can be enticing shopwindows to a wider streaming store, but they must be an exciting product in themselves. Television’s architecture will crumble unless schedules lean into what makes them a distinctive offering, by honouring traditions yet taking risks, uniting audiences around cultural milestones, and serving streaming but not at the expense of the singular linear experience.
About the Author
Cameron Gray is a Planning Executive at Paramount, working on Channel 5, its digital channels, and Paramount+, where they are a part of the “week-to-press” meeting where schedules are torn apart and built up. Previously, Cameron worked in planning for Discovery, on channels including Really, HGTV and TLC.