Audience research as a scheduling tool.

Summary: In France there is an unfortunate gap between academic research into television and industry-based studies carried out in the research departments of television companies. Among university academics, 'audience researchers' have had a bad press. It is assumed that they are biased in favour of a programme scheduling policy aimed at a mass audience and subject to the 'dictatorship of the ratings' and are thus inimical to all creators and innovators. Audience researchers are thought to personify subservient research. I would like to demonstrate that this profession is both more subtle and more widely useful than is generally known. I will try to show: that it helps clarify the complex nature of the television audience; that it promotes a better understanding of the behaviour of television viewers; that the knowledge it provides is indispensable for those who decide television scheduling policy: and that this information is particularly important in any consideration of the mission of the public sector channels).