Programming Time Slots of the “Big Three” TV Channels: Weekday Broadcast

This article presents the results of a study of the programming strategy of Russia’s leading TV channels - Channel One, Russia 1, NTV - in different time slots. The relevance of the study is determined by the crucial role of dayparting in TV programming as well as the insufficient investigation of this strategy in Russian communicative studies. The relevance is also related to the leading position of TV in the whole structure of the Russian media system. Dayparting has always been considered one of the main programming techniques, which provides for homogeneous TV content targeted at certain segment of audience in various parts of the day. The authors’ main aim was to learn whether dayparting remains the leading programming strategy under the conditions of audience fragmentation and Ganges in media consumption habits, and what topics and genres are typical for each time slot. The authors also analyzed the leading competitive strategies - counterprogramming and blunting - in different time slots. The authors monitored the TV and radio programs from 21 to 27 October 2019. All content was typologized by topic and genre features. The following time slots were investigated: early morning (5:00 aM - 9:00 AM); late morning (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM); daytime (1:00 PM - 5:00 PM); pre-prime time (5:00 PM - 7:00 pM); prime time (7:00 PM -11:00 PM); post-prime time (11:00 PM - 2:00 AM); and overnight (2:00 AM - 5:00 AM). The study showed that dayparting remains the leading programming technique under the conditions of audience fragmentation and Ganges in media consumption habits in the digital age. The content, programmed in particular time slots, differs by genres and topics. Each time slot has priority formats of broadcasting: infotainment TV magazine for early morning; consumer programs in the genre of discussion or conversation for late morning; social and political journalism in the genre of conversation, interview or discussion for daytime; social and political discussions, feature films and series, entertainment programs for pre-prime and prime time. Post-prime time offers a greater variety of genres and topics: political and social journalism, educational programs and documentaries. Journalists turn to the genres of interview, essay, reportage, and others. The overnight slot of all the three TV channels is used for rotations of broadcasts. The systematization of the content has shown a correlation of genre and topic features, which may indicate the existing (but not theorized) formats typical for different time slots. With regard to programming strategies, two of the three TV channels blunt the competition in the morning, late morning and daytime, and all the three channels choose the counterprogramming strategy in the pre-prime, prime and post-prime time.

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