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Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to broadcast their season's nightly programming. The term ''prime time'' is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example (in the United States), from 8:00p.m. to 11:00p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) or 7:00p.m. to 10:00p.m. (Central and Mountain Time). In India and some Middle Eastern countries, prime time consists of the programmes that are aired on TV between 8:00p.m. and 10:00p.m. local time.


Asia


Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the 19:00-to-22:00 time slot is known as Prime Time. Several national broadcasters like
Maasranga Television Maasranga Television ( bn, মাছরাঙা টেলিভিশন; ) is a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable television channel owned by the Square Group. It commenced broadcasts on 30 July 2011, and is based in Banani, Dhak ...
, Gazi TV, Channel 9, Channel i broadcast their prime-time shows from 20:00 to 23:00 after their Primetime news at 19:00. During
Islamic Holidays There are two official holidays in Islam, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, which are celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Both holidays occur on dates in the lunar Islamic calendar, which is different from the solar-based Gregorian calendar, so they are ...
Season, most of the TV Stations broadcast their especially produced shows and World Television Premiers starting from 15:00 to midnight. In
Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
, the broadcasters also air special Religious and Cooking shows starting from 14:00 to 20:00 affecting the primetime hours. Besides, After blameways, Late Night Talkshows are also aired from 01:00 to 04:00 with Ramadan being exception. Religious shows are also broadcast simultaneously from 01:00 along with Talk shows and News Analysis.


China

In television in China, the 19:00-to-22:00 time slot is known as Golden Time Also Known "Party time",( Traditional Chinese: 黄金時間; Simplified Chinese: 黄金时间; Pinyin: Huángjīn shíjiān). The term also influenced a nickname of a strip of holidays in known as Golden Week.


Hong Kong and Macau

Prime time usually takes place from 19:00 until 22:00. After that, programs classified as "PG" (Parental Guidance) are allowed to be broadcast. Frontline dramas appear during this time slot in Cantonese, as well as movies in English.


India

In India, prime time occurs between 19:00 and 23:30. Usually, programmes during prime time are domestic dramas, talent shows and reality shows.


Indonesia

Prime time usually takes place from 16:00 to 0:00 in Indonesian time zones and Sinetrons (
soap operas A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
) dominate majority of the programming grids. Before 2018, daily evening newscasts would kick off primetime between 17:00 and 18:00, although some channels, notably SCTV, broadcast their daily evening newscasts earlier, usually at 16:00 or 16:30. The practice of airing news at primetime ended in 2018 in favor of adding more Sinetrons to the schedule, except for TVRI and Trans7, which have kept their newscasts Klik Indonesia Petang (at 18:00) and Redaksi Malam (at 23:45) on primetime respectively. After prime time, programs classified as Adult, as well as
cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...
commercials, may be aired. Like other Muslim-majority nations, there is also a 'midnight prime time' during
suhur ''Sahūr'' , ''Suhūr'', or ''Suhoor'' (; ar, سحور, suḥūr, lit=of the dawn', 'pre-dawn meal), also called Sahari, Sahrī, or Sehri (Persian/Urdu: سحری, Bangla: সেহরী) is the meal consumed early in the morning by Muslims be ...
while the month of
Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
is commencing. It takes place from 02:00 (or 02:30 in some channels) and ends at the
Fajr prayer The Fajr prayer ( ar, صلاة الفجر ', "dawn prayer") is one of the five mandatory salah (Islamic prayer), to be performed anytime starting from the moment of dawn, but not after sunrise. As an Islamic day starts at sunset, the Fajr praye ...
call, which varies in timing between 04:30 and 05:00. The time slot is usually filled with entertainment and religious programming.


Iraq

In Iraq, prime time runs from 20:00 to 23:00. The main
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
programs are broadcast at 20:00 and the highest-rated television program airs at 21:00.


Japan

In Japanese television, prime time runs from 19:00 to 23:00. Especially, the 19:00-to-22:00 time slot is also known as . The term also influenced a nickname of a strip of holidays in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
known as Golden Week.


Malaysia

Malaysia prime time starts with the main news from 20:00 to 20:30 (now 20:00 to 21:00) and ends either at 23:00 or 1:00, or possibly later. Usually, programmes during prime time are domestic dramas, foreign drama series (mostly American), films and entertainment programmes. Programmes classified as 18 are not allowed to be broadcast before 10:00 p.m. but on
Radio Televisyen Malaysia Radio Televisyen Malaysia ( en, Radio Television of Malaysia, abbreviated as RTM, stylised as rtm), also known as the Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia ( ms, Jabatan Penyiaran Malaysia) is the national public broadcaster of Malaysia. Establi ...
, most programmes on this slot are rated U (U means ''Umum'' in Malay and literally General Viewing or General Audiences in English) throughout the whole day. However, programmes broadcast after 23:00 are still considered prime time. As of 2019, NTV7's prime time continues until 12:00 a.m. Programmes during prime time may have longer commercial breaks due to number of viewers. Some domestic prime-time productions may be affected because of certain major sporting events such as FIFA World Cup. However, only FIFA World Cup held in the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
do not affect the domestic prime-time programmes but only during daytime.


Pakistan

In Pakistan, prime time is from 19:00 to 00:00 Pakistan Standard Time. During this time the majority of the local channels broadcast their most popular shows. However, state channels broadcast Khabarnama (New Bulletin) from past many decades. Like other Muslim-majority nations, In
Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
, the broadcasters also air special Religious and Cooking shows starting from 14:00 to 19:00/19:30 with ‘Ramadan’ Special Programs airing from 19:30/20:00 to 21:30/22:00 affecting the primetime hours for some channels. There is also a 'midnight prime time' during
suhur ''Sahūr'' , ''Suhūr'', or ''Suhoor'' (; ar, سحور, suḥūr, lit=of the dawn', 'pre-dawn meal), also called Sahari, Sahrī, or Sehri (Persian/Urdu: سحری, Bangla: সেহরী) is the meal consumed early in the morning by Muslims be ...
while the month of
Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
is commencing. It takes place from 02:00 (or 01:45 in some channels) and ends at the
Fajr prayer The Fajr prayer ( ar, صلاة الفجر ', "dawn prayer") is one of the five mandatory salah (Islamic prayer), to be performed anytime starting from the moment of dawn, but not after sunrise. As an Islamic day starts at sunset, the Fajr praye ...
call, which varies in timing between 04:30 and 05:00. Also, during other Islamic events such as Muharram and Rabi' al-Awwal Some channels broadcasts religious shows during day/evening time slots (between 12:00 and 19:00 - time varies on channel) or late-night slot (from 22:00).


Philippines

In the Philippines, prime-time blocks begin at 18:00 (now 16:30 or 17:00) and run until about 23:00 (or 23:30) on weekdays, and 19:00 to 23:00 on weekends. The weekday prime-time blocks usually consists of local Philippine television drama (soap operas) and foreign television series. The network's highest-rated programs are usually aired right after the evening newscast at 18:30 or 20:00, while a foreign series (usually a Korean Drama) usually airs before the evening newscast or precedes the late night newscast. On weekends, non-scripted programming such as comedy series, talent shows, reality shows and
current affairs Current affairs may refer to: News * Current Affairs (magazine), ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics. * Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism * Current Affairs, former name for Behi ...
shows air in prime time. For the minor networks, prime time consists of American television series on weekdays, with encores of those shows on weekends. Prime time originally started earlier at around 19:00, but the evening newscasts were lengthened to 90 minutes and now start at 18:30, instead of the original one-hour newscast that starts at 18:00.


Singapore

In Singapore, prime time begins at 18:00 on Channel 5, 18:30 on Channel 8 and 19:00 on Channel U, CNA, Suria,
Vasantham ''Vasantam'' () is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language drama film produced by N.V.Prasad & Sanam Naga Ashok kumar on Sri Sai Deva Productions banner, directed by Vikraman. Starring Venkatesh, Arti Agarwal, Kalyani and music is composed by S. A. Rajk ...
. which are also the main ( Free-to-air) television channels in Singapore. On Channel 8, prime time ends at midnight or 0:15 on weekdays, at 0:30 on Saturday nights and at 23:30 on Sunday nights. On Channel 5, prime time ends at 0:00 on weekdays, at 1:30 (or later) on Saturday nights and at 0:30 on Sunday nights. On Suria, prime time ends at 22:30 on Monday to Thursday nights, 23:30 on Friday nights, 23:00 on weekends and at 00:30 or 01:00 on eve and actual days of Public Holidays. On Vasantham, prime time ends at 23:00 on Mondays to Thursdays, midnight (or later) on Friday and Saturday nights and at 23:30 on Sunday nights. On Channel NewsAsia, prime time ends at 23:01, immediately after the news headlines, seven days a week and on Channel U, prime time ends at 23:00 seven days a week. Generally, however, prime time is considered to be from 18:00 to 00:00.


South Korea

In South Korea, prime time usually runs from 19:30 to 23:00 during weekdays, while on Saturdays and Sundays, it runs from 18:00 to 23:00. Family-oriented television shows are broadcast before 22:00, and adult-oriented television shows air after 22:00.


Taiwan

In Taiwan, prime time (called ''bādiǎn dàng''—八點檔—in Mandarin Chinese, literally eight o'clock slot) starts at 8 p.m. in the evening. Taiwanese drama series played then are called 8 o'clock series and are expected to have high viewer ratings. Also, the evening news usually start from 18:00 or 19:00.


Thailand

In Thailand, prime time dramas (ละคร; lakhon) air from 20:30 to 22:30. Most dramas are soap operas. Prime time dramas are popular and influential to Thai society.


Vietnam

In Vietnam, prime time is also known as Golden Time ( Vietnamese: ''Giờ vàng''), prime time starts at 20:00 in the evening and ends at 23:00.


Europe


Austria

In Austria, prime time usually starts at 20:15 after the news broadcast of the first "Staatlich-rechtliches Fernsehen" or ORF1, event though ORF2 has its news from 19:30 to 20:00, they also start broadcasting prime time content at 20:15. The same applies for nearly all channels seated in Austria or Germany, that are broadcast in Austria.


Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, prime time starts at 20:00 and finishes at 22:00. It is preceded by a daily newscast (''Dnevnik'') at 19:00 and followed by a late night newscast (''Vijesti'') at 22:00.


Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, prime time starts at 20:00 o’clock every day (including weekends). Usually, the programmes aired are Bulgarian or Turkish series and reality shows, followed by a late newscast. The Bulgarian National Television broadcasts ''Po Sveta i u Nas'' at 20:00 and shows cultural and political programmes from 21:00 to 22:00 with next being series and late-night news at 23:00.


Croatia

In Croatia, prime time starts between 20:00 and 20:15. Croatian public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija broadcasts a daily newscast from 19:00 to 20:00. Also, many private broadcasters have daily newscasts either before or after the HTY newscast, at around 20.05, followed by the start of their own prime time. Many broadcasters without daily newscasts start their prime time at 20:00. Prime time generally ends between 22:00 and 23:00, followed by the late night edition of the network newscast and adult-oriented programming.


Denmark

In Denmark, prime time starts at 20:00.


Finland

In Finland, prime time starts at 21:00. It is preceded by a daily newscast at 20:30.


France

In France prime time starts at 21:10 (20:35 in 1980s, 20:50 in 1990s and 2000s, 21:05 in 2010s).


Georgia

In Georgia, prime time starts between 18:45 and 20:00 and generally ends at midnight. However, on Friday night / Saturday morning prime time usually continues until 1:00.


Germany

At 20:00 each evening
Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are member ...
(The First), Germany's oldest public television network, airs the country's most-watched news broadcast, the main edition of the ''
Tagesschau (German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality ...
''—which is also simulcast on most of its other specialist and regional channels (The Third). The conclusion of the bulletin 15 minutes later marks the beginning of prime time, as it has since the 1950s. In consequence, most channels also choose to start their prime time at 20:15. In the 1990s, the commercial channel
Sat.1 Sat.1 is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group. It is considered the first privately owned television network in Germany, having been launched in January 1984 as ''PKS'' ''(Programmgesellschaf ...
suffered a significant loss of audience share when it tried moving the start of its prime time to 20:00.


Greece

In Greece, prime time runs from 21:00 (usually following the news) to midnight.


Hungary

In Hungary, prime time on weekdays on the two big commercial stations (
RTL Klub RTL (formerly: RTL Klub) is a Hungarian free-to-air television channel owned by RTL Group. The channel began broadcasting three days after its main rival TV2, one of Hungary's first commercial TV channels. History Since its start, RTL Klub ...
and
TV2 Channel 2 or TV 2 may refer to: Television networks, channels and stations *Channel 2 (Iran), operated by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting *Channel 2 (Israel), a commercial television station *, entertainment and music television in Latvia * ...
) starts at 19:00 with game shows, tabloid and docu-reality programmes. At 21:00, two popular soap operas air: ''Barátok közt'' and ''Jóban Rosszban'', which follows at 21:30. American and other series, movies, talk-shows and magazines run until 23:30. The prime-time lineup is preceded by daily news programmes at 18:30. At weekends prime time begins at 19:00, with blockbuster movies and television shows. Before 15 March 2015, the public television station M1 began its prime time with a game show at 18:30, which was followed by the daily news programme ''Híradó'' at 19:30. After the news, the channel broadcast American and other series, talk shows, magazines, and news programmes until 22:00, after which came the daily news magazine ''Este'' and the late edition of ''Híradó''. From 15 March 2015, Duna began broadcasting all of the entertainment programming transferred to it from that date from M1, meaning that prime time on Duna now begins at 18:00, starting with the simulcast of the 18:00 edition of Híradó from the newly re-launched news channel, M1.


Iceland

In Iceland, prime time starts at 19:30. It is preceded by a daily newscast at 19:00.


Ireland

In Ireland, prime starts at 18:30 and ends at 22:00.


Italy

In Italy, prime time (called "prima serata") starts between 21:00 and 21:45 (main channels, including RTV) and ends between 23:30 and 00:30. On Friday and Saturday night some shows last until 06:30–07:00. It usually follows news and, on some networks (like Rai 1 and
Canale 5 Canale 5 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel of Mediaset, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It was the first private television network to have a national coverage in Italy in 1980. On 4 December 2012, Mediaset launched Canale 5 HD, a s ...
), a slot called "access prime time". Shows, movies, and sport events are usually shown during prime time.


Netherlands

Much like in Germany, prime time in the Netherlands usually begins at 20:30 in order to not compete with Nederlanse Omroep Stichting's flagship 20:00 newscast.


Norway

In Norway, prime time starts at 19:45. On the NRK1 channel it is preceded by the daily newscast '' Dagsrevyen'' at 19:00. Locally, prime time is called (lit. "best time for broadcasting").


Poland

In Poland, prime time starts around 20:00 (sometimes 20:30). On TVP1 it is preceded by a daily newscast at 19:30, on TVN the newscast is aired at 19:00 followed by the newsmagazine Uwaga at 19:50 (weekdays) or 19:45 (weekends), and then the soap opera Na Wspólnej at 20:05 (Monday to Thursday), from Friday to Sunday (at 20:00) various: movies on Friday, serials or films (Winter and Summer) at Saturday, and programme or films(Winter and Summer) at Sunday), on ( Polsat) the news is aired at 18:50, followed by a sitcom Świat według Kiepskich at 19:30.


Russia

In Russia television prime time is between 19:00 and 23:00 on working days and from 15:00 to 01:00 on holidays. On radio stations there are morning, day and evening prime times. The most common division: morning—6:30 to 10:00; day—~12:00 to 14:00; evening—16:00 to 21:00.


Slovakia

Public television in Slovakia consists of two channels; on the main channel (
Jednotka Jednotka (formerly STV1) is a Slovak television generalist channel owned and operated by public broadcasting, state-funded RTVS. Programming News and journalism * Góly, body, sekundy (''Goals, points, seconds'') - sport news * O 5 minút 1 ...
) prime time starts at 20:10, and on the second one (
Dvojka Dvojka (formerly STV2) is a Slovak television channel owned and operated by RTVS Radio and Television of Slovakia ( sk, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska ) or RTVS is a nationwide public broadcasting, state-funded organisation in Slovakia. It i ...
) prime-time programming starts at 20:00. The two biggest private broadcasters set the start of prime-time programming at 20:20 ( Markíza) and 20:30 ( TV JOJ). Generally, however, prime time is considered to be from 20:00 to 23:00.


Slovenia

In Slovenia, prime time, the period in which the most-watched shows are broadcast, is from 8:00pm to 11:00pm. It is preceded by daily newscasts; Dnevnik RTV SLO (7:00pm – 8:00pm) on TV SLO 1, 24ur (6:55pm – 8:00pm) on POP TV, Svet na Kanalu A (6:00pm – 7:00pm; 7:50pm–8:0pm), and Danes (7:30pm – 8:00pm) on Planet TV.


Spain

In Spain, prime time refers to the time period in which the most-watched shows are broadcast. Prime time in Spain starts quite late when compared to most nations as it runs from 22:30 till 01:00. Most news programmes in Spain air at 21:00 for an hour and prime time follows. However, due to fierce competition, especially among the private stations prime time has even been delayed until 23:00. Most channels are delaying prime time in order to protect their top shows from sporting events. In the 1990s, prime time in Spain began at 21:00, moving to 21:30 in the latter half of the 1990s and 22:00 in the early 2000s. Commercial broadcaster LaSexta and the second channel from the Public broadcasting La 2 have attempted to shift prime time back to 21:30 in 2006 and Spring 2007, but these attempts have been unsuccessful. Fellow public channel La 1 also tried to pull prime time back to 21:00 in early 2015, to no avail. The lateness in the start of prime time in Spain is also due to Spanish culture. Spanish people generally work from 09:00–14:00 and then from 17:00–20:00 as opposed to the standard 09:00–17:00. The popular late-night show ''
Crónicas marcianas ''Crónicas'' ("chronicles") is a 2004 Ecuadorian thriller film, written and directed by Sebastián Cordero. The film was produced by, among others, Guillermo del Toro, director of ''Pan's Labyrinth'', and Alfonso Cuarón, director of '' Chi ...
'' during the late 1990s–2000 also helped to extend prime time well into the early hours with the show being watched by a share of 40%, despite finishing at 02:00. Spain might also be unique in that it has a second prime time, running from 14:30–17:00 which coincides with the extended Spanish lunch break. Shows airing in the secondary prime time period on many occasions beat those prime-time shows at night on a daily basis. The second prime time occurs only on weekdays, though and the slot is usually filled with '' The Simpsons'',
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
, soap operas and talk shows.


Sweden

In
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, prime time starts at 20:00. It is preceded by a daily newscast at 19:30 and local news at 19:50.


Ukraine

In Ukraine, prime time ( uk, прайм-тайм, найкращий час) runs from 18:30 to 21:30 on working days and from 15:00 to 01:00 on holidays.


United Kingdom

In the UK, prime time (can also be known as peak time in that country) runs from 19:00 to 23:00.


North America

In
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, television network feed their prime-time programming in two blocks: one for the Eastern and
Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
time zones, and the other, on a three-hour tape delay, for the
Pacific Time Zone The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00) ...
, to their local network affiliate. In
Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
(including Newfoundland and Labrador) as well as Alaska and Hawaii, there is no change in the interpretation or usage of "prime time" as the concept is not attached to time zones in any way. Affiliates in the Mountain,
Alaskan Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
, and Hawaiian zones are either on their own to delay broadcast by an hour or two, or collectively form a small, regional network feed with others in the same time zone. Prime time is commonly defined as 8:00–11:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific and 7:00–10:00 p.m. Central/Mountain. On Sundays, the major broadcast television networks traditionally begin their primetime programming at 7:00 p.m. (Eastern/Pacific, 6:00 p.m. Central/Mountain). Some networks such as
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
, The CW, and MyNetworkTV broadcast only from 8:00–10:00 p.m., a time period known as "common prime". Most networks air primetime programming nightly, but the smaller MyNetworkTV has programmed only on weekday evenings since its 2009 retreat towards a programing service. The CW returned to Sunday broadcasting in 2019, then added Saturday for the first time in 2021. In Canada,
CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...
and Global both follow the same model as the larger U.S. networks (although both may occasionally air programming in the 7:00 p.m. hour in the event of scheduling conflicts with other U.S. imports), while
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
,
Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...
and CTV 2 schedule prime-time programs only within the common prime period (with the 10:00p.m. hour dedicated to
syndicated programming Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
on Citytv and CTV 2, and CBC airing its news program '' The National''). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has alternatively defined prime time as ranging fro
6 pm to 11 pm
t

Since the early 2000s, the major networks have come to consider Saturday prime time as a
graveyard slot A graveyard slot (or death slot) is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early mor ...
, and have largely abandoned scheduling of new scripted programming on that night. The major networks still maintain a prime-time programming schedule on Saturdays, with a mix of live sporting events (most commonly
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...
in the United States and ice hockey in Canada), encores of programs aired earlier in the week, films, non-scripted reality programs, true crime programs produced by their news divisions and, occasionally,
burning off In American broadcast programming, "burning off" is the custom of quickly airing the remaining episodes of a television program, usually one that has already been or is planned to be cancelled, without the intent to attract a large number of vie ...
episodes of low-rated or cancelled series. Prime time can be extended or truncated if coverage of sporting events run past their allotted end time. Since the " Heidi Game" incident in 1968, in which NBC cut away from coverage of a
New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...
/
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...
football game on the east coast in order to show a movie (and, in the process, causing viewers to miss an unexpected comeback by the Raiders to win the game), the present-day National Football League mandated that all games be broadcast in their entirety in the markets of the teams involved. Due to this rule, game telecasts may sometimes overrun into the 7:00 p.m. ET hour.
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
previously scheduled repeats of its animated series in the 7:00 hour, allowing themselves to simply pre-empt the reruns if a game ran long. This was later replaced by a half-hour-long wrap-up show, ''The OT''. In contrast, CBS does not, as its weekly newsmagazine ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'' has traditionally aired as close to 7:00 p.m. ET as possible. Even if a game runs past that hour, CBS shows ''60 Minutes'' in its entirety after the conclusion of coverage, and the rest of the prime-time schedule on the East Coast is shifted to compensate. For example, if game coverage were to end at 7:30 p.m., prime time would end at 11:30 p.m. However, in the rare case where the NFL game runs excessively late (8p.m. or later), the series scheduled to air at 10p.m. is preempted, with the West Coast and eastern markets airing only an early afternoon game usually receiving a repeat of the 10p.m. series instead. In an extreme case, CBS's prime time can be extended past midnight during broadcasts of the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...
. This does not necessarily apply universally; in 2001, after an
XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...
game went into double overtime, causing a 45-minute delay of a highly promoted episode of '' Saturday Night Live'', NBC made a decision to cut off all future XFL broadcasts at 11:00 p.m. ET. Since the launch of
NBCSN NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...
, NBC has occasionally invoked this curfew by moving sports overruns to that channel if necessary. Until the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulated time slots prior to prime time with the now-defunct Prime Time Access Rule in the 1971–1972 season, networks began programming at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific/6:30 p.m. Central and Mountain on weeknights. The change helped instigate what is colloquially known as the " rural purge"—a long-term trend away from programs appealing to older and rural audiences in favor of programs catering towards younger, "urban" viewers. As a result, the hour became a lucrative timeslot for syndicated programming in the years that followed, with game show and variety show, as well as other syndicated reruns, becoming popular. The vast majority of prime-time programming in English-speaking North America comes from the United States, with only a limited amount produced in Canada. The
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
mandates quotas for Canadian content in prime time; these quotas indicate at least half of Canadian prime-time programs must be Canadian in origin, but the majority of this is served by national and local news or localized entertainment gossip shows such as
Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after ...
's '' Entertainment Tonight Canada'' and
CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...
's '' ETalk''. Likewise, the vast majority of Spanish-language programming in North America comes from Mexico. Televisa, a Mexican network, provides the majority of programming to the dominant U.S.-based Spanish broadcaster, Univision. Univision does produce a fairly large amount of unscripted Spanish-language programming, the best known having been the long-running variety show ''
Sábado Gigante Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The day's na ...
'', hosted and created by Chilean national Don Francisco. Univision's distant second-place competitor, Telemundo, produces a much greater share of in-house content, including a long line of telenovelas. In Quebec, the largest Francophone area of North America, French-language programming consists of originally produced programs (most of which are produced in Montreal, with a few produced in Quebec City) and a few French-language dubs of English language programs. On all of the Quebec networks, entertainment programming is scheduled only between 8 and 10p.m., with the 10–11p.m. hour given over to a network newscast or a nightly talk show.


United States

Prime time is the dayparting (a block of a day's programming schedule) with the most viewers and is generally where television networks and local stations reap much of their advertising revenues. In recent years, television advertising expenditure in the US has been highest during prime-time drama shows. The
Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
system is explicitly designed for the optimum measurement of audience viewership by dayparts with prime time being of most interest. Television viewership is, in general, highest on weekday evenings, as most Americans are working time, asleep during the overnights, and out taking part in social events on weekends; thus, television has its highest audience at times when people are unlikely to be away from home. Prime time for radio is called drive time and, in Eastern and Pacific Time, is 6–10a.m. and 3–7p.m. and, for Mountain and Central Time, is 5–9a.m. and 2–6p.m. The difference between peak radio listenership and television viewership times is due to the fact that people listen to their radios most often while driving to and from work (hence the name "drive time"). A survey by Nielsen revealed that viewers watched almost two hours' worth of TV during prime time.How Much TV Do People Watch During the Day?
Marketingcharts.com. April 4, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2013.


Mexico

In Mexico, central time normally starts at 7:30 p.m. and periodically ends at 10:30 p.m. The main networks such as Las Estrellas, Azteca Uno and Imagen Televisión broadcast telenovelas produced by themselves or productions acquired from other countries such as Turkey, Brazil, among others.


South America

In many Latin American countries, prime time (known in most countries as ''horario central'' or "Central Time", ''horario estelar'' ("Stellar Time") or ''horário nobre'' ("noble time") in Brazil) is considered to be from Monday to Friday from 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. The time slot is usually used for
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
, telenovela and television show, and special time slots are used for reality television, with great popularity, especially in Mexico and Brazil. In Brazil, the three most famous telenovelas in the country are shown each weekday and on Saturdays on prime time. There are also news programs, reality shows, and sitcoms.


Argentina

In Argentina, prime time is considered to be from 8:00p.m. until 12:00a.m.; with the most successful series and telenovelas in the country (such as ''
Los Roldán ''Los Roldán'' is a Spanish language telenovela produced by Argentina's Telefe from 2004 to 2005. The drama, which is also described by many as a comedy, actually ended up winning an award in 2004 as Argentina's Comedy of the Year. RCN Colombian ...
'' and '' Valientes''), and entertainment shows, like CQC (Caiga Quien Caiga).


Chile

In Chile, prime time is considered to be from 10:30p.m. until 1:00a.m.; where the most successful series and telenovelas in the country (such as ''Socias'' and ''Las Vega's''). Investigation entertainment shows (like '' Informe Especial'', ''Contacto'', ''Apuesto por ti'') also air.


Oceania


Australia

Prime time in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
is officially from 6:00 p.m. to midnight, following
Australian Eastern Standard Time Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...
, with the highest ratings normally achieved between 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.


New Zealand

Traditionally, prime time in New Zealand is considered to be 7:30pm to 10:30pm, but can be extended to cover the entire evening of television (5:00pm to 11:00pm).


See also

* Drive time * International broadcasting * Late night television *
Market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...
*
Graveyard slot A graveyard slot (or death slot) is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early mor ...
* The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present * List of longest-running American primetime television series


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prime Time Television genres Television terminology Economics and time