EDEN CHANNEL
"Eden aims to show the world in all its beauty and wonder"
- Eden- What is Eden? -
Eden, part of the UKTV network, is a television channel dedicated to showing wildlife and science programs. They mostly feature BBC Natural History documentaries; science programming; and adventure and travel programmes. According to their website their range of programming is "everything from animal behaviour and glorious landscapes to cutting-edge science and life-endangering exploration".
SOME BASIC FACTS
- The channel launched as UKTV Documentary on 8th March 2004, and relaunched in it's current format on 27th January 2009.
- Many of it's programming is taken from the BBC archives.
- Slogan- 'Never Stop Wondering'.
- Broadcast across the UK and Ireland.
THEIR PROGRAMMING
Over the years Eden has shown many programmes from the BBC archive. In recent years they started playing more science based programmes, whilst still keeping with it's nature themed identity. Eden has also occasionally produced it's own exclusive programming, with the most recent being 'David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities'.
Looking back over the history of Eden's programming, here are a few examples of the types of programmes they show:
- BBC Wildlife Specials
- Bang Goes the Theory
- The Blue Planet
- Deadly 60
- Frozen Planet
- Horizon
- Human Planet
- Natural World
- Planet Earth
- Walking with Dinosaurs
- Wonders of the Universe
The list goes on. It seems as though the channel likes to play a lot of Attenborough documentaries, and documentary series about the Earth as a whole, that focus on many aspects. There are a lot of one off shows and series.
My group is currently looking at making a documentary about allotment gardening in the UK, and currently, according to their website, Eden has only ever shown two documentaries that focus entirely on plants. This means we will have to think very carefully about how we can make our documentary fit with the Eden identity and their current programming schedule.
OUR PROPOSED TIMESLOT
In the brief it states that our proposed timeslot is 8pm on the Eden Channel. The current schedule for that timeslot over the next week (2/3/16-8/3/16) is as follows:
- 2nd April- Human Planet
- 3rd April- Human Planet
- 4th April- World's Wildest City: Manaus
- 5th April- World's Wildest City: Manaus
- 6th April- World's Wildest City: Manaus
- 7th April- World's Wildest City: Manaus
- 8th April- World's Wildest City: Manaus
It looks as though Eden changes the 8pm schedule on a weekly basis, always playing a series a week, and a different series over the weekend. They seem to play everything in bulk, so people can sit down and watch multiple episodes at once. One off specials seem to be played on busy nights of the week like Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays at either a 8 or 9pm timeslot.
This is all information we need to think about and take into consideration when decided how to put our documentary together to ensure it fits with the timeslot and the channel.
Sources:
http://eden.uktv.co.uk/article/what-eden/
http://eden.uktv.co.uk/
Great channel research here - you are right to question how your idea would fit into this brand - it may alter the story focus,tone or style so consider the impact this will have on your film.
ReplyDelete