EOC Week 9: Network

Thinking about the movie in reference to market research brings up a lot of things. The main female character in the movies life revolved around getting her department not just great ratings but the best ratings possible and also boosting her television network to number one, above all others. Ratings were a way to gather market research in order to see what shows are doing the best, to raise prices on the advertisement spots during them and make a profit from them. Another way I just thought of that they did market research was when they stuck their heads out of the window when they first starting putting Howard on TV. after he went crazy; they tried to see what reaction he got. They also called into cities across the nation that was showing the show trying to see if they were getting a reaction. Towards the end of the movie when they are planning on how to murder Howard, the female character talks about how their strongest viewer was the young adult ranging from 18-25. In this same scene there is a lot of market research talk, she talks about how if they cancel the Beale show they’d be able to stay afloat because some of the other shows have already captured their own audience. She talks about how their main audience would be adults in their late twenties and possibly even into the thirties. One of the biggest ways she does market research is when in the beginning of the movie she is trying to put that tape of the gang robbing the bank in Phoenix. She states that people don’t want the same mediocrity; they want someone who tells the truth. When she finds Beale this is when she says people will be able to relate to him because all everyone wants to say is “it’s all bullshit.” This is when, in my opinion, the plot takes a turn and what she really wants that I stated before starts to unfold. The network starts to rise to the top, thanks to her directing the show.