Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries. The documentary programs are different from other television programs, including movies and TV series, in several aspects. A documentary is a non-fiction movie based on documentation done on captured reality. The major purpose of documentaries is revelation of unusual, unknown or interesting events.
The global documentary television market has been categorized by content area, type and socio-economic group in value terms in U.S. dollars. The categorization is also given by viewer age group in volume terms (number of viewers). The content area includes wildlife, sports, social, political and entertainment. The types include poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative. The socio-economic group includes high class, middle class, and others. The others in the socio-economic group include lower middle class and low class. The different age groups included for segmentation in the study includes 1 – 14 years, 15 – 28 years, 29 – 42 years, 43 – 56 years and above 56 years.
The key drivers of global documentary television market include escalation in number of viewers for fact-based programs, growing penetration of pay TV, and increasing numbers of young audiences for documentaries. The changes related to demography and people’s lifestyle are guiding all such variations that are also the growth driving factors for the documentary television market.
The growth of the global documentary television is being hindered by two major factors including regulations related to content broadcast, and unpredictable and volatile preferences of viewers. The market is growing at a slow growth rate; however Asia-Pacific region is witnessing a moderate growth rate.
The major companies operating in the documentary television market include Discovery Communications Inc., Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, British Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Al Jazeera Media Network, AMC Networks Inc., Time Warner Inc., News Corporation, France 24, and CBS Corporation.