Class-Audience and industry

Audience

1) What were the viewing figures for Class and why do you think it did so badly?
Class failed to make an impact for the BBC, with some mixed reviews and poor viewing figures. Class failed to make the BBC iPlayer Top 20 in its first seven weeks, and failed to secure over 1m viewers at any point when repeated on BBC One. This was for a number of reasons:

• iPlayer release only initially.
• BBC One late showing (after 10.30 slots).  Poor scheduling

2) What audience psychographic groups might particularly enjoy Class?(young and rubicam)

Aspirers , strugglers and mainstreamers will be attracted to Class.

3) What audience pleasures are offered by Class - Co-owner of a Lonely Heart? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity: Young children can relate to the young cast.

Personal Relationships: Ram and April's relationship and Charlie and Mattheuz's homosexual relationship.

Diversion (Escapism): Fantasy and sci-fi - escapism from reality

Surveillance (Information / Facts): Education about history

4) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to Class - Co-owner of a Lonely Heart?
Visceral (thrill) from the violence.

5) How did fans in the 'Whoniverse' (also known as 'Whovians') react to Class? Watch the fan reaction video (and read the YouTube comments) embedded above or check the comments in the extension articles below to help with this.
The 

Industries 

1) What was the objective of BBC3 when it was launched?
BBC Three launched as a TV channel in 2003 and its remit was to provide "innovative" programming to a target audience of viewers between 16 and 34 years old.

2) Why did BBC3 go online-only in February 2016? 
BBC3 went online-only in February 2016 because they recognised that teenagers don't watch much TV, they are usually on their phone using other streaming services.

3) How does Class - Co-owner of a Lonely Heart meet the BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and entertain'?
The episode of Class Co-owner of a Lonely Heart meets BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and entertain' by informing and educating the audience through the genre of Sci-Fi. They are entertained through the dramatic moments within the episode and the building up of tension.

4) How did the distribution of Class contribute to the failure of the show with audiences?
It was then shown weeks later in a late night slot “the graveyard slot” on BBC One.
It was also shown on BBC America where it was slightly more popular. In America, the episodes were paired with Doctor Who episodes to create a ‘Whoinverse’ double bill.
Overall, the confused distribution model was almost certainly part of its downfall.

5) What advertising and marketing was used to try and promote Class to an audience? Why do you think this wasn't very successful?
YouTube trailer videos were used to try and promote Class to an audience as well as through iPlayer and Netflix. I didn't think this was very successful because the series was released on iPlayer right after it ended on the BBC show.

Comparison: An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart

1) How are the technical conventions different between 1963 Doctor Who and 2016 Class (e.g. camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene)?

2016 Class is more modernised with more colour whereas 1962 Doctor Who doesn't show much colours, just black and white occasionally. There is more music in 2016 Class to match with the way the different scenes are portrayed. The camerawork is more professional in 2016 Class but in Doctor Who, children would be able to watch it whereas the showing of Class contains quite a bit of sexual content.

There are more interesting props in Class as it contains petals that kill living things. Doctor Who has more appearances of the Doctor whereas Class rarely invites their Doctor; the plot is quite messy for Class.

2) What similarities and differences are there between An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart in terms of the science-fiction genre?
Co-owner of a Lonely Heart is the spin-off of An Unearthly Child; a similarity between both CSPs is that there is an unknown planet with aliens in it. An Unearthly Child involves the TARDIS but the Co-owner of a Lonely Heart doesn't though the Co-owner of a Lonely Heart still involves advanced technology as well as space travel. There are both aliens who look like humans and aliens who look different in both episodes, which is another similarity. There is futuristic weapons within Co-owner of a Lonely Heart but not in An Unearthly Child. They both have the colour of blue but the Class episode includes shades of orange as well. They both have electronic, suspenseful and tense non-diegetic sounds.

3) What similarities and differences are there between An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart in terms of how they meet the BBC's remit to inform, educate and entertain?
An Unearthly Child meets the BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and entertain' through the use of Science and classroom setting inside the series, whereas Co-owner of a Lonely Heart also uses Science but only partly meets their remit; it does entertain, it could educate others about aliens within Sci-Fi genre if the audience didn't already know about it but I don't believe the Class episode informs about anything. April argues with her History teacher, which is educating and this also happens in An Unearthly Child but instead Susan is arguing with her Science teacher.

4) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows?
A difference between both CSPs is that the doctor is shown in An Unearthly Child whereas the doctor isn't shown at all in Co-owner of a Lonely Heart. The plots are quite different as well as the episode from Class being more modernised and the BBC doesn't know who the target audience is for the whole series whereas there is a definite target audience from the 1st episode of Doctor Who. There is an acceptance of homosexuals in Class, but the idea of homosexuality isn't introduced in Co-owner of a Lonely Heart since it only focuses on Sci-Fi and doesn't involve relationships or any sexual content. Coal Hill Academy, which is a school, also features within both shows.

5) What similarities and differences can you find in terms of the audience pleasures for An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart?

Both CSPs have a range of characters that the audience can personally identify with. The audience would want to see what happens to Susan and April in both CSPs, so a personal relationship would be formed. They both provide diversion for an audience due to the Sci-Fi genre. An Unearthly Child provides surveillance for allowing them to develop their own ideas to do with Science and technology. They both give vicarious pleasure but Class provides more such as the voyeuristic and the visceral pleasures. In both CSPs, audiences can experience space travel through the characters.