Unit 6: Critical

Approaches to the
Media Sector
 The program I decided to research was the "Fantasy Thriller" Game of
Thrones which originally aired in the 17 April 2011. Based on the books of the
same name written by George R.R. Martin and directed by Brian Kirk, Neil
Marshall, David Nutter, David Petrarca and Alan Taylor the show took a wild
approach of leaving nothing to the imagination and pushing the limits of tv.
 Ill be using two main forms of reseach in qualitive and quantitive forms
aswell as audience classification in order to determine the "game of
thrones" audience and the aspects that have made it so popular.
Quantitive Research

 Number of Game of Thrones

viewers per episode in the United
States as of 2016, by season (in
millions) from an average of 2.58
million in season 1 to triple that in
season 6 the show shows no sign of
slowing down.
 Similar numbers expected to be
represented in the UK but the
surveys were very linear and data
not made public
Cost Per Episode

 The cost per episode is one of the

highest in the world for a tv show.
They continually raise at as the
audience continues to grow but
stay at an average of 10 million
per episode to make
Qualitive Research
(Lowest and Highest watched episodes)
 Lowest
Aired on the 15th May 2015 the
episode Unbowed, Unbent,
Unbroken, was the lowest rated
and lowest watched episode of all
time with 2.1 million concurrent
viewers after a lot of reviewers
stated that the episode was not
bad but lacked any story telling
elements that progresses the series
 Highest
Game of Thrones season 7 finale
was the most-watched episode in
the history of the series with a
staggering 12.1 million live viewers
and when adding streaming
service HBO go jumps to 16.5
million viewers. Leaving the same
amount of fans waiting for the start
of season 8
Audience Classification
 Age
Majority of the audience falls
under 18-29 year olds at 71.9%
while people of 30-44 holds the
second biggest group at 18%.
 Gender
males make up the most of the
audience while 18.2% of females
and other make up the lower
section
Audience Classfication

 The show is directed at adults and  The show also trys to capitalise on
this clearly shows, almost every the fan of the lord of the rings
episode is rated 18 due to the series at is very similar. They are
violence and sexual nature of the both set in magic and old times
show. The audience classes varies with mystical creatures constantly
so much as it a very smartly written causing threats.
show with a lot of killing and sex
that will bring viewers just for that
reason. They keep doing this to
keep their demographic as wide
as possible to make sure the show
gets the highest viewership of any
fantasy show ever.
Conclusion

 In conclusion I have found that the

show is written for everyone but
strays closer to the male 18-29
demographic. They also spend 10
million per episode and get
roughly 12 million average viewers
per episode making it one of
biggest shows and making it very
mainstream. The groundbreaking
and fantasy storylines that this
show brings up will keep viewers
interested until the end of season 8
where the show will come to a
close.