The Role of Ratings in Scheduling: Commercial Logics in Irish Public Television

Abstract

Scheduling used to be thought of as little more than a matter of sticking programmes into slots. Today, however, as a result of fundamental changes in the European broadcast sector, scheduling plays a central role in public broadcast institutions. It has changed from a marginal administrative function, guided by instinct, to a highly rationalized organizational system. At the heart of this system is audience measurement, a systematic and scientific means of knowing the audience. Through the schedule-led system, audience measurement data has come to govern every facet of public service broadcasting.