Humans - Mock Exam Question

 

In what ways does the TV industry use specialisedforms of distribution? Make reference to Humans in your answer.

Humans is a British Science-fiction television series in the subgenre of alternative present, it is a remake of the Swedish version called, 'Real Humans', it is distributed by Channel 4 and AMC in a transnational scale targetted at cult audiences. Distribution which means the spreading and sharing of a product to a number of people to consume, the show uses specialised forms of distribution which is important for a media product to be seen by audiences for the financial success of the series.

A specialist form of distribution which Humans use is through cult audiences and fandoms (Jenkins) who are a motivated audience of a media product. This is through viral marketing, where the fans spread the series, Humans, by discussing it to friends as a water-cooler topic and through online forums and social media as a free form of distribution which producers don't have to pay for. This type of marketing is a specialist form of distributing as well a guerilla-marketing, for example Humans created a pop-up shop for 'Persona Synthetics' a fictional company to fix synths of Regent Street and through spot adverts, with unusual marketing creating a snowball effect with more distribution of the TV series through cult audiences and viral marketing. 

Another form of specialised distribution which Humans do is through digitally convergent technology making globalisation and distribution of a media product much easier and enables more profit and power (Curran and Seaton) by having a transnational audience. Humans is distributed by Channel 4 and AMC, a British and American channel, this allows an opportunity to spread and distribute the programme on a global scale and because Channel 4 is in partnership, there is more money being funded into the programme, the higher quality the TV series is, the more revenue it will make.

The TV industry uses specialised forms of distribution to spread the product further and make a high profit. Humans uses specialised forms of distribution through viral marketing and their target audience (cult audience) and having a transnational corporation partnership with the UK and U.S.