In radio or television broadcasting, a director of network programming, shortly program director or director of programming, also called president of TV entertainment, senior vice president for TV programming or vice president of program scheduling, is a TV executive who, typically, selects the programs to air and plans the broadcasting schedule (
broadcast programming
Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or season-long schedule.
Modern broadcasters use broadcast automatio ...
), deciding what
radio program or TV program will be broadcast and when. In addition of selecting the content that will be broadcast, it might also have a role in developing it.
A program director's selections are based upon expertise in the media as well as knowledge of the target
demographic
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...
. In some countries, the program director in commercial broadcasting is of even greater importance, since he makes a decisive decision about the economic success of the broadcasters. In so-called private television, the most important program directors were or are often the managing directors of the station, such as
Les Moonves for CBS in the United States, or
Anke Schäferkordt
Anke Schäferkordt (born 12 December 1962) is a German businessperson who served as CEO of the RTL Group from 2012 until 2017. Besides that, she won the International Emmy Award for Directorate Award in 2013.
Early life and education
Schäferkor ...
for RTL in Germany.
In a broadcasting network, there might be a separation between the news department and the programming department, in which case there is a
news director oversighting the news department, in which the director of programming has no say.
[Lynne Gross, Brian Gross, Philippe (2012) ]
Programming for TV, Radio & The Internet: Strategy, Development & Evaluation
'
See also
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Dayparting
*
Full-service radio
References
Broadcasting occupations
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