Prime time
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Prime time is the block of programming on television during the middle of the evening.
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[edit] Definition
In North America, television networks feed their prime time programming in two blocks: one for the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones, and one for the Pacific, Alaskan, and Hawaiian time zones to their local affiliates. In Atlantic Canada (including Newfoundland) as well as Alaska and Hawaii there is no change in the interpretation or usage of "prime time" as the concept is not attached to time zones in any way.
[edit] When prime time is
United States: The generally accepted times considered to be traditional prime time are 8:00pm to 11:00pm Eastern and Pacific and 7:00pm to 10:00pm Central and Mountain Monday–Saturday.
- On Sundays, prime time begins an hour earlier, at 7:00pm Eastern and Pacific and 6:00pm Central and Mountain, ending at the same time as on the other six days of the week. Note that for cable networks, such as USA, TBS, and ABC Family, prime time is 8:00pm to 11:00pm all seven days of the week.
- With the addition of newer networks such as the FOX, The CW, and MyNetworkTV, they're now considered a common prime separate from traditional prime.
- Common prime is 8:00pm to 10:00pm Eastern and Pacific and 7:00pm to 9:00pm Central and Mountain Monday–Saturday, beginning an hour earlier on Sundays as with traditional prime.
- Before the FCC regulated time slots prior to prime time in the early 1970s, networks began programming at 7:30 on weeknights. For a historical look at prime time, see History of TV Prime Time
International:
- Prime time in Australia is roughly 7:30 to 10:30pm (as Australian TV stations start hour long programs at half past a particular hour), following Australian Eastern Standard Time.
- Prime time in New Zealand is considered to be 7:30 to 10:30pm, but can be extended to cover the entire evening of television (6pm-11pm).
Some stations choose to run their prime time programming off pattern starting programs an hour earlier than usual. This is called early prime.
[edit] Timeslot's relationship to radio & TV revenue
Prime time is the daypart (block of a day's programming schedule) with the most viewers and is generally where television networks and local stations reap much of their advertising revenues. The Nielsen Ratings system is explicitly designed for the optimum measurement of audience viewership by dayparts with prime time being of most interest.
The existence of prime time in the United States is largely an artifact of now repealed regulations of the Federal Communications Commission which limited the number of hours that a network can require its affiliates to broadcast.
Additionally, networks may also choose to provide local affiliates the opportunity to air sporting events or other special events which may fall outside of standard designated network broadcast times.
[edit] Prime Time & international broadcasting
Outside North America "Prime Time" is used in international broacasting to refer to when the most audience is available to an international broadcaster in a particular time zone (Australian Eastern Standard Time, for example) or block of contiguous time zones (Eastern North America, as in EST + CST).
- In the case of the Pacific Time Zone (Americans) prime time is from 03:00 UTC to 0700 UTC.
- GMT prime time is exactly 12 hours from NZT prime time.
[edit] Prime Time in Europe
[edit] Prime Time in Germany
In German Television the Term Prime Time is used analoge to the US-Term. The Public and the commercial TV-Station use the time slot according to traditional usage of the TV-Watching Audience. The oldest public national broadcasting network of Germany, the Working Community of broadcasting networks of Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten in Deutschland = ARD), also referred as "The First"(Das Erste) airs the most watched German main news show "Tagesschau" at 8:00 p.m. The Tagesschau is scheduled for 15 Minutes; it sets the starting point for the prime time. Any other channels have chosen to start their prime time at 8:15 p.m. Several attempts by Germany's commercial broadcasters like Sat1 to change the prime time start from 8:15 to 8:00 p.m. were not successful.
