Dave, the new name and image for UKTV Gold, was launched on 22nd January 2009. The channel was launched across all media platforms, including Freeview, Sky and Cable television. Dave has grown in popularity considerably, becoming the UK’s largest channel within just a month of its launch. The channel focuses on a particular audience group: 16-34 year old males. This is clear from just looking at the type of shows shown, including continuous Top Gear repeats, QI, Live at the Apollo, Ray Mears survival and Mock the Week. It is also clear from the design of the channel and its accompanying website.
The website for Dave is quite image and flash heavy so it does take a while to load first time round.Once it has fully loaded, the website has many flashy and inteactive items, including the menus and the sliding content. This creates a very rich experience for the user.
The website itself is very easy to navigate, with a simple menu at the top and along the side. The lack of external links ensures that the viewer stays on the website for as long as possible.
Just like all of the other UKTV channels, Dave's website contains a simple television guide, relevant information about certain programmes and of course advertising to increase revenue for the channel.
To suit the very blokey image of the television channel, the website has a very posh design. The black wallpaper-like background and the gold picture frames that surround every image on the site creates design that looks very much like a gentlemen's club. The text on the website gives a feel of a lack of seriousness, maybe due to the specific intended audience. As the channel's main proportion of its viewers are male, the website does not have to appeal to as many people as a website such as the BBC's, so the content on the page can be specifically based around that certain group of people.
The content on the website itself matches both the theme of the television channel and the website, with short clips of outtakes and the best of Top Gear. Also included are the usual array of competitions and quizzes, all aimed at the same demographic of 16-34 year old males.
Matt you might want to think about the gentleman's club feel of the website's graphics and the intended audience = blokes = there's an incongruity here which I think suggests that Dave doesn't take itself too seriously....meaning is communicated in a myriad of ways....you need to be sure to deconstruct it fully..and to think about how your graphics/mise en scene, if you like, will communicate something of your tv channel's ethos/image/purpose..
ReplyDelete"16 - 34 year old males"
ReplyDeleteplus me, as its all I watch