Television: His Dark Materials - Audience and Industry

 His Dark Materials is an example of contemporary family/fantasy TV drama. The series is based on the

trilogy of books of the same name by Philip Pullman. The second series is based on the book
The Subtle Knife.

Industries

The CSP episode is the opening episode of Season 2, The City of Magpies, and was first broadcast in the UK on Sunday 8 November 2020 on BBC1 at 8.10pm. It was made available on iPlayer on the same
day, and on DVD from 28 December 2020.

It is significant because it was co-commissioned for an international audience by the BBC and the
American television network HBO, and was always intended to be distributed on a number of
platforms: as a scheduled, broadcast programme (BBC1), on cable (HBO), as well as on demand
(iPlayer) and on DVD. It was created for these platforms by an independent company, Bad Wolf.

The first episode of the first series of His Dark Materials series was watched by audiences of 7.2 million in the UK and 423,000 on HBO. The first broadcasts of the CSP episode had audiences of 4.4 million on BBC1 and 227,000 on HBO.

Industry terminology: GLoW

Some of the key terminology for studying the Industries contexts for His Dark Materials:
  • Co-production: a media product produced by two separate companies or institutions. His Dark Materials is a big-budget co-production between the BBC (from the UK) and HBO (from America).
  • Brand Identity: how a business presents itself and wants to be perceived by the consumer.

His Dark Materials marketing and promotion

As His Dark Materials was aimed at an international audience, the show features both British and American star names such as Brits Ruth Wilson and James McAvoy and American Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote the smash hit musical Hamilton.

There were a range of videos and promotional events designed to create a buzz around the new season of His Dark Materials:

His Dark Materials Season 1 recap


His Dark Materials Comic-Con panel:



Bad Wolf: outstanding TV drama production company based in Wales

Bad Wolf was founded in 2015 to create ambitious, imaginative and relevant drama for the global TV marketplace.  From its headquarters in South Wales the company has built up an international reputation as one of the foremost independent production companies in the UK, producing over 50 hours of high-end drama for broadcasters and networks including HBO, BBC, AMC and Sky.

Read more of this on the Bad Wolf website and watch the Bad Wolf showreel here.


HBO: raising the bar for television

HBO is an American pay-TV company that is known for producing some of the greatest TV shows of all time from The Sopranos to The Wire to Succession. As a co-commission with the BBC, His Dark Materials had two hugely respected media giants behind it - and in HBO's case a huge amount of money. HBO has over 40 million subscribers and brings in around $7 BILLION in subscription revenue each year. To put this into perspective, the whole BBC budget (for everything - TV, radio, website, iPlayer etc.) is around £5 billion of which around £3.5 billion comes from the licence fee). 

HBO - Changing an industry:




Audience

His Dark Materials was pitched by the BBC as a family drama. 

Target audience
  • Aimed at a contemporary family audience for the BBC Sunday night broadcast slot (8.10pm)
  • Targeted at fans of the fantasy genre along with fans of the original books by Philip Pullman.
  • Diverse representations of gender and race may appeal to a younger audience.
  • Rated for 14+ by HBO due to some scenes that may be frightening to younger children.
  • The UK DVD release of His Dark Materials season 2 is rated 12 by the BBFC.

The way audiences watch TV has changed

His Dark Materials provides an opportunity to study the contemporary television industry and audiences. The series was created at a time when the BBC’s role and finances were under question, and when on-demand streaming through sources such as Netflix and Amazon Prime had become normalised. These latter companies were creating big-budget series to attract and satisfy more subscribers. His Dark Materials was rumoured to be the BBC’s most expensive series to date, with HBO sharing the costs and guaranteeing an international audience. This helps the BBC to compete with their streaming rivals like Netflix.


Fans - the fandom reaction

Watch this fan reaction video to His Dark Materials Season 2 trailer from TV fan YouTube channel Sesskasays:



His Dark Materials: Audience and Industries blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'His Dark Materials: Audience and Industries blog tasks' and answer the following questions:

Audience

1) Read this audience rating guide for His Dark Materials. Based on the screening and this article, who do you think the target audience is for His Dark Materials and why? What about psychographic groups? You can revise Pyschographics here.

I believe his dark materials is aimed middle-class teenagers of any race or gender given the inclusion of multi-racial characters and an equal balance of male and female characters, the protagonists being teenagers is what also leads me to believe that the show is aimed at them because they'd find their ages something that they can relate to. What psychographics might be interested are adventurous personalities who seek out interesting ideas and answers.

2) What audience pleasures are offered by His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity: 

Personal Relationships: 

Diversion (Escapism): The introduction of fantasy concepts such as witches, daemons and magic allows the audience to find escapism in the media as they provide a gateway away from daily life.


3) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to His Dark Materials? Refer to specific scenes or moments in the episode to explain your answer. 

4) How did fans react to Season 2 of His Dark Materials? What about critic reviews? You can find some possible answers for this in this BBC website article on the critical reception for His Dark Materials and watch the fan reaction video above.

5) What might be some of the preferred and oppositional readings for His Dark Materials? Why did some fans love it? Why have other people criticised it? 


Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series?

His Dark Materials was produced by BBC and HBO.

2) What were the UK viewing figures for A City of Magpies? How did this compare to season 1 of His Dark Materials?

The first episode of the first series of His Dark Materials series was watched by audiences of 7.2 million in the UK and 423,000 on HBO. The first broadcasts of the CSP episode had audiences of 4.4 million on BBC1 and 227,000 on HBO. This was a significant drop in viewership and displayed the series' decline in popularity.

3) What was American network HBO's role in making His Dark Materials and why is this important? Look at the notes above for more on this.

HBO has a huge budget and a large amount of subscribers, besides for this they were co-commissioned to produce the show, so using their massive budget they funded the show's production whilst simultaneously bringing attention to the series.

4) What famous stars are in His Dark Materials and why do you think they were selected for the show? Watch the Comic Con panel video in the notes above to see the stars talking about the show.

5) Who are Bad Wolf and what do they produce?

One of the foremost independent production companies in the UK, producing over 50 hours of high-end drama for broadcasters and networks including HBO, BBC, AMC and Sky.


Comparison: Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child and His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies

1) How are the technical conventions different between 1963 Doctor Who and 2020 His Dark Materials (e.g. camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene)? 

The visual effects from HDM are significantly more high end and are more commonly used as opposed to DW-AUC which has a very limited amount of VFX. The acting has also improved and is far more believable compared to the DW episode, most likely as a result of more refined acting techniques that had changed and improved over the course of 60 years.


2) What similarities and differences are there between Doctor Who and His Dark Materials in terms of genre and narrative? 

The sci-fi and fantasy genre overlap in the fact that neither of them contain any *proven concepts that currently exist in real life.

3) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows?

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