Sources

The study concerns three countries: France, Turkey and the United Kingdom. These countries were selected in part due to their relative cultural and socio-economic proximities, which explains the choice of two European countries – France and the United Kingdom. To provide a global answer to the questions posed in this study, a different country needed to be included as well. Turkey, being not ‘completely’ European, appeared to be the best compromise. Moreover, all three countries are members of the OECD (socio-economic proximity). Consequently, it is possible to draw a comparison of their TV channels, especially in terms of qualitative issues, such as TV programming. On the other hand, the inclusion of Turkey allows some diversity to be included in the sample of countries.

In every case, the most popular (based on viewership) private and public TV channels were chosen. It was also ensured that the private channel was significantly funded through advertising, which led to the abandonment of the analysis of other countries’ TV channels. Finally, all these channels target a wide audience in their respective territory. To reach the aim of a wide audience, they all pretend to be generalist (i.e. they are specialized neither in one category of programme in contrast to channels specialized in music like MTV or to news channels like CNN nor in programmes that aim at one category of the population, such community television). Every channel studied broadcasts 24 hours a day.

The programming of six television channels was studied during the month of November 2009. Two channels are French (TF1 (pr) and France 2 (pu)), two are British (BBC 1 (pu) and ITV1) and two are Turkish (TRT1 and Kanal D (pr)). November was chosen as it is a rather neutral month with not too many ‘events’31 _{and therefore, can be considered as representative of what is}

broadcasted the rest of the year. Two kinds of analyses were done so far: one over the whole day and another over prime time periods (i.e. 7:15-10:00 p.m. for France, 6:00-10:30 p.m. for Great Britain and 8:00-11:00 p.m. for Turkey)32_{. The time periods for prime time were chosen}

according to the standard used by the European Audiovisual Observatory (2009), which is the most consensual data source for the European audiovisual sector.

All channels are generalist ones. Channels that are not freely available to viewers were excluded (i.e. pay television like Canal Plus in France). To test the influence of advertising revenues on the level of diversity in programming, channels predominantly funded by advertising were compared to channels predominantly funded through license fees. Table 2 presents the funding situation of the different channels in this study. The following are brief descriptions of the channels included (by country).

31 _{Events in this context refer to, for example, the end of summer vacation, holiday banks, international}

sport competitions or political elections.

32 _{The prime time period is significantly longer in Great Britain (4h30) than in Turkey (3h) and in France}

(2h45). As such, analyses were conducted with a prime time reduced to 7:00-10:00 p.m. for Great Britain, which did not lead to significantly different results.

Table 2. A comparison of the financial situation of the channels in this study Channels

ITV London BBC 1 TF1 France 2 Kanal D TRT 1

Turnover (M€) 2326.5 1581 (2008) 2764 1733(2007) 33933 Share of advertising in turnover 100% 0 % 63 % 30 % 100 % 8.1 % 34 Other fundings - Licence fees (3/4), international Thematical channels, teleshopping, broadcasting rights, international Licence fees (2/3) - Public funds (90.3%), other funds (1.7%)35 Cost of content (M€) n/a 1255 1024 788 Audience (whole day) 19.2% 36 _{22 % 30.7 % 18.1 % 14.2% 3.9%} Audience (prime time) 24.5% 37 _{23.9 % 32.6 % 18.1 % 17.3% 3.5%}

Source: EAO, 2008 ; BBC, 2009 ; ITV1, 2008.

France

TF1 (pr) is the oldest commercial channel in France with the exception of the pay television channel Canal Plus. It was launched on 8 July 1974 and was privatized in 1986. It has been predominant in France as witnessed by the fact that it reaches the highest audience rating at the European level. Although its share in audience has been diminishing for some years and now reaches around 30%, its market share in advertising remains superior to 50%. The situation of TF1 (pr) in the French audiovisual industry is very peculiar, notably when one considers its very high audience.38

France 2 (pu) is the main channel (with an audience rate of 18%) in the public group France Télévision, which includes most French public channels (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and France O). Within the group, France 2 has the highest average audience rate and its aim is specifically to propose “a diversified programming to a large audience” (France Télévisions’

website). France 2 and TF1 are direct competitors in terms of programming. Moreover, since the beginning of 2009, France 2 no longer broadcasts advertisings after 8 pm, which makes the TV channel be even less dependent on advertisement funding.

        33 _{Data for TRT as a whole.} 34 _{Data for TRT as a whole.} 35 _{Data for TRT as a whole.} 36 _{Audience for ITV1 as a whole.} 37 _{Audience for ITV1 as a whole.}

United Kingdom

Since its creation in 1922, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has headed a public service mission. It has become a worldwide public television model since the huge majority of its revenues come from its licence fee and it does not broadcast any advertising. BBC 1 (pu) is the main television channel of the BBC group and the most relevant one for this study as it targets a wide audience (22% of audience rate).

ITV1 was created in 1955 to compete with the BBC and was the first private television channel ever in the United Kingdom. ITV1 is considered to be the most relevant channel to compare to BBC 1 (pu) as it is a direct competitor. It is the first British commercial television channel in terms of audience share (18%) and advertising revenues since it attracts 30% of television advertising spending.

Turkey

The Turkish Radio and Television Institute (TRT) was the only institution that was broadcasting radio and television programmes until the early 90s. After the beginning of the 90s, in order to compete, the private channels of TRT started to have other channels. TRT 1 (pu) was intended to be the popular TV channel within the TRT group. TRT 1 (pu) is the sixth popular TV channel in Turkey (with 3-4% of the audience) and the most popular public channel that is 78% funded by the state (via two taxes, one included with the electricity bills and one with the revenue stamp used for TV, radio and similar devices). The second kind of financial resource is advertisements. Kanal D (pr) is the most popular TV channel in Turkey with around 14% of the audience. Its TV serials and news are very popular. The channel uses the news sources of its parent company Dogan Holding Corp. which owns 7 newspapers and 11 television channels. The channel is categorized as a “family channel” broadcasting programmes that are aimed at all members of a standard Turkish family.