Hope for Knightmare on Challenge? TV?

[Gerz]

Maybe Challenge has been taken over by the same people who decided to cut Knightmare from CITV. >:(  >:(

[GrimaldineGrimwold]

One of Challenge?'s official team has responded again on the main KM thread. I won't quote it all here, because I think doing so sometimes stops people going to Challenge?'s own forum and contributing.

The general message, however:
- We can't advertise every programme
- We do take into account a lot of factors when considering whether to buy (further) series of programmes.
- We are currently monitoring KM's ratings.

So, at least those of us who posted got an answer of sorts. I still don't think some of the logic is completely sound, but I for one think we've now made the point on the advertising and such. Even if they won't admit it directly, I think they realise they approached the marketing of this programme with an inappropriate attitude.

The last line of the post was, however, interesting:
"Just purely out of interest, if we were to buy another series, which one would you suggest?"

I would quickly add that they have NOT committed themselves to buying another series. This may be "purely out of interest". It may be that they are seriously considering the possibility. For those of a cynical mindset, it may be an elaborate ploy to focus us on something other than pointing out their folly.

Anyway, the full text is on their forum, via the link I've posted far too many times already. Posts there are always welcome.

[Lowebo]

What series will people suggest? I say 4 2 1 5 in that order! (well, i just really mentioned 4)

[GrimaldineGrimwold]

I'm going to say 4 too.

[Lowebo]

[Malefact]

I suggested series 2 - since it is the most similar to series 3, and it has two winning teams.

[Jericho6]

My vote is for season 4.

[Jericho6]

lol, what's all this?

http://www.challengetv.co.uk/ubb/Forum5 ... 00261.html

Someone's been having a bit of fun...

[GrimaldineGrimwold]

Yep, someone's decided to mess around. I assume it's the same guy who usually posts under "keenplayer(s)", who's been insulting other people and posting idiotic comments for several days now.

I also don't think Challenge? will appreciate this person offering to give away £1000 of their money. That's the total programme budget for the year!

[Emii]

meep meep.

[Porsmond]

Its funny but on the new comment posted to the website, he said they didnt advertise Knightmare because they felt other programmes wanted the advertsing more( eg Orginal Productions that have never been seen before)

WTF do they mean by this, What orginal productions that havent been seen before, do they mean programmes like Takeshis Castle?? ?? If so I aint got a clue, personally I dont really agree with their reply. If you have a new programme that hasnt been shown on Challenge before, you should still give it a little bit of advertsing, Its seems ok saying they dont have the finacial resources but why do they still waste it on advertsing for shows like The Crystal Maze(which has been shown for years now) and the Price is right(Shown for quite a while now too)  Also to think they didnt do a very simple announcement at the end of the Cult Selection at Christmas to say the show would be contining on the channel which could have been done for NOTHING BTW is just very annoying.

Also I suggested on their forums that I didnt really mind what series they showed if they did get the rights to another one as I really dont mind but did hint at showing Series 4 considering it seems logical after showing Series 3, this would show us Pickle, The Outdoor Scenes, The corridor of Blades and the use of the eyeshield being used. We could also view that classic Death too

Simon SideStep to the Left  ;D

[Jericho6]

Hm, I dunno about their argument that they don't have the financial resources to advertise it - sureyl advertising something on their own channel costs nothing?

[GrimaldineGrimwold]

Its funny but on the new comment posted to the website, he said they didnt advertise Knightmare because they felt other programmes wanted the advertsing more( eg Orginal Productions that have never been seen before)

WTF do they mean by this, What orginal productions that havent been seen before, do they mean programmes like Takeshis Castle?? ?? If so I aint got a clue, personally I dont really agree with their reply.

I suppose they mean their own-brand productions like TV Scrabble, TV Soap Addicts and Celebrity Addicts.

If you have a new programme that hasnt been shown on Challenge before, you should still give it a little bit of advertsing, Its seems ok saying they dont have the finacial resources but why do they still waste it on advertsing for shows like The Crystal Maze(which has been shown for years now) and the Price is right(Shown for quite a while now too)

 

Previously they've advertised TCM on its own, and I think that was a mistake, and they'd have been better concentrating on advertising other things. However, at least now they're advertising it along with all the other evening action shows. I think branding the prime time slot like that, thereby drawing similarities between the shows is a wise move on their part. It is the prime time schedule, too- even if it already has a lot of viewers, you still need to get more, and to persuade viewers of one show to watch others. Advertising, of course, isn't all about creating awareness of shows- in this case it's partly that, but also partly to persuade people that (for example) if they love Takeshi's Castle they'd also love Fort Boyard.  

On The Price Is Right, again it's in an important slot, and the potential benefit in viewers per advertising unit is again great. They've also rebranded it with the "Play Along" element, a point I think they're right to promote.  

Part of the problem is Knightmare is a weekend show. That means the potential benefit in total viewers across the week of an advert may well be less than advertising a weekday prime time show. As they hinted on the forums, you consider the slot and this potential benefit I keep going back to, when deciding which programmes to advertise.

I guess there are two main counter-arguments/solutions:

1. Knightmare shouldn't be just a weekend show. I've suggested on their forums that if they got a couple more series, they should also put it on late evenings on weekdays. If it had that many showings each week, there would be a lot more incentive to advertise- the potential benefit for them in terms of viewers would be higher.  

2. Advertise a lot of the weekend shows together, in much the same way they've done with the weekday evening lineup. There is an awareness problem with Knightmare: I think a lot of people who watch the regular weekday or prime time lineup don't realise it's on. That probably goes for a lot of other shows tucked away in the weekend schedules. I'm going to suggest advertising some of these together, so it'd be more cost-effective, but would still succeed in generating more awareness among casual viewers both of Knightmare and other shows. The might also be able to create a theme of sorts to try to get people watching a lot of these shows together.  

Also to think they didnt do a very simple announcement at the end of the Cult Selection at Christmas to say the show would be contining on the channel which could have been done for NOTHING BTW is just very annoying.

Agreed. That really was criminal. Add to that (as you've heard me say on their forums) the failure to update their website front page to advertise new programmes in January, and the fact they got a lot of the annoucements of the next episode wrong (and then failed to do it at all!) and you have a mess. It's just mismanagement, really. Nothing much to do with cost.  

Also I suggested on their forums that I didnt really mind what series they showed if they did get the rights to another one as I really dont mind but did hint at showing Series 4 considering it seems logical after showing Series 3, this would show us Pickle, The Outdoor Scenes, The corridor of Blades and the use of the eyeshield being used. We could also view that classic Death too

Simon SideStep to the Left  ;D

That seems logical. I'll suggest the same as soon as I can get on their forum (I never realised it was closed overnight).

[MPK]

Why did Challenge show season 3 anyway? Not that I didnt like it, but surely it would have been better to show a season with a winner, as not a lot of non knightmare fanatics have actually seen a team win, and would have liked to have done so.

[Malefact]

Well, general consensus is that series 3 is the best. They obviously did their homework before selecting a series; they asked us to nominate our favourite series, and they certainly would have had a look round this web site.