Form of programming where programs of a particular genre or similar are grouped together
Block programming
(also known as a
strand
in British broadcasting) is the
arrangement of programs
on radio or television so that those of a particular genre, theme, or target audience are united.
Overview
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Block programming involves scheduling a series of related shows which are likely to attract and hold a given audience for a long period of time.
[1]
Notable examples of overt block programming were
NBC
's Thursday evening "
Must See TV
" lineup, which included two hours of sitcoms and one hour of
ER
, and
Channel 4
's "
T4
" program which often ran sitcoms back-to-back for an hour or more.
Reruns
on
cable television
are often assembled into similar blocks to fill several hours of generally little-watched daytime periods. A particularly long program block, especially one that does not air on a regular schedule, is known as a
marathon
.
Block programming in radio also refers to programming content that appeals to various demographics in time blocks, usually corresponding to the top or bottom of the hour or the quarter-hour periods. For example, various musical genres might be featured, such as a country music hour, a three-hour afternoon block of jazz, or a four-hour Saturday night '70s disco show.
Generally speaking, block programming is anathema to modern competitive commercial radio, which traditionally uses uniform formats, other than a handful of speciality shows in off-peak hours such as weekends (for instance, the infamous
beaver hours
in Canadian radio). The general rationale for not using block programming is that listeners expect a certain type of music when they tune into a radio station and breaking from that format will turn those listeners away from the station; likewise, a station that airs its programming in hodgepodge blocks will have difficulty building listener loyalty, as listeners' music will only be on for a few hours of the day. This argument for homogenized radio was also a driving force behind the effective death of
freeform radio
in the late 20th century. The case of
talk radio
is indicative of the decline of block programming: prior to the 1980s, it was not uncommon to mix various blocks of talk programming together on one station, but this has declined dramatically in the late 1990s and beyond. A listener to a
conservative talk radio
station will have little interest in a
progressive talk radio
,
sports radio
or
hot talk
block, which reaches a different demographic; stations that have attempted the block strategy have historically been unsuccessful. Block programming of this nature is alive and well on outlets like
public radio
(such as
NPR
, the
BBC
, or
CBC
) and in multicultural radio serving broad ethnic and cultural audiences, although even in this realm the idea of block programming is declining due to competition for donations.
Some programming blocks have become so popular that they have been transformed to full-fledged 24-hour channels. Current channels which started as program blocks include
Disney Junior
(which is still a program block on
Disney Channel
); the
Nick Jr. Channel
(based on the
Nick Jr. block
that still airs on Nickelodeon);
[2]
Boomerang
(which was once a program block on
Cartoon Network
); and
PBS Kids
(which is still a
program block
on
PBS
).
[3]
In addition,
TV Land
airs older shows that were once aired on sister channel Nickelodeon's
Nick at Nite
program block.
Adult Swim
is also a Cartoon Network Programming Block.
However, since the 2010s, new programming blocks have become rare due to airing programming in a regular format or with little or no brand reference within the programming block.
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See also
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References
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