ABSTRACT
This chapter starts off by presenting the emerging wave of scholarly interest in the schedule and in scheduling because of the growth of non-linear television and the many questions this development poses to what television is and its role in society. In this chapter I argue for an approach to both the schedule as a text and scheduling as a professional skill in the industry based on a pragmatic and socio-cognitive understanding of genre. According to this approach there is a reciprocal relationship between the genre produced and the developments in specific professional media production cultures. The theoretical approach has the ability to highlight the interplay between human agency and different kinds of structural and technological forces. Second, the approach has the potential to integrate media texts, especially the micro- and meso-levels of production, which is fruitful in order to understand the way in which the television industry navigates the tensions between the two television paradigms. The second part of this chapter reviews the different kinds of knowledge of the audience (quantitative, qualitative and cultural knowledge) implemented in television scheduling. These sources of knowledge are, however, rooted in the linear television paradigm, and this ‘exposure model’ is challenged by the promise of personalisation based on algorithms. These new tools and the challenges they entail for public service television are finally discussed.
