How things have changed! The babe shows have tried every which way they can to organise their babes and get them on screen, on a night. But is there a right way and a wrong way to do this? Central to this scheduling, is the ability to keep the viewers entertained. But on the other side of things as a producer, it is also important to maximise the babes you have for the evening. This isn’t always an easy job!
BACK IN THE NOUGHTIES….
In the old days, the terrestrial babeshows used to divide their broadcasts into what was known as “sections.” One section was an allocated period of time, where one model, sometimes two models, would be on screen before taking a break. The standard duration of each section was around 30 minutes. So, at this time, you may have got Tiffany Chambers on screen from 10pm until 10., 30, then Dani O’Neal from 10.30 to 11, and then Charlie C from 11 to 11.30pm and so on, for the entire night.
But, this was scheduling did not only happen on Babestation at the time. Bang Babes and other channels did the same. There was experimentation also with the lengths of the sections, to try and optimise the girls on screen. In 2008 and 2009, some of the sections on the Freeview shows could last up to 45 minutes, and on rare occasions, even stretch to 60 minutes. It was in the last days of Party People, when allocating the sections was often left until the last minute, that on the 16th July 2009, Camilla Jayne worked the entire night portion of the show, from 3am right the way through to 5.30am on her own.
A BABE SHOW WITH A DIFFERENCE
One of the reasons this worked brilliantly, was that even though Camilla Jayne held her own for a full two and a half hour show, the actual feel of separate sections was well maintained. This was because Camilla changed outfits often, to keep things fresh for viewers. She did this during short pic download slideshows, and it really did work as a concept. Part of this was Camilla’s great ability to act out a role, or several roles that went with every outfit And she looked like she loved it every minute of the way.
After this marathon run by Camilla, individual sections on other babeshows started to get longer too. In fact, extending each girl’s section to around 1 hour was part of several other changes that came in at that time, not the least of these was a big increase in the number of full-strength night offerings on Freeview from Babestation, from one to four different shows. This bought a much greater variety to the channels and viewers alike, who could now happily flick through the channels to find the babe they liked. In turn, with growing audiences, there were more customers wanting interaction with the same onscreen girl. The bigger queues would also mean that it would take longer for people to get through to a specific girl at any time.
Thus, particular attention was paid to a big restructure at this time, with an onus of allowing quality for the increased amount of eavesdroppers. The girl’s time on screen was now divided up into entertaining eavesdropping sections, alternating with more interactively focused periods. So, it would actually take the babe longer to fulfill all of her commercial requirements. Now, 30 minutes on screen was simply not enough in most cases.
BABESTATION TRANSFORMATION
In September 2009 Babestation underwent transformation. The previously relaxed, primarily interactive products, accompanied by lots of chat and “downtime,” now became far more driven, streamlined and less interactive programmes, with each of the models utilised more efficiently. Even when off-screen, the girls were quickly occupied with work for them to do.
The concept of sections did continue to exist at this time, but the sections were extended and far more flexible. Successful models were able to stay on screen for up to 90 minutes, if the call volumes were maintained. And so, the past concept of 30 minute sections on Babestation became a thing of the past
The next real transformation from the concept of individual “sections” on Babestation was an ‘all-nighter’ from Tiffany Chambers on the Babestation Xtra Freeview show in April 2010. Accompanied by Geri onscreen as well as offscreen, Tiffany was live for literally hours on end, in a naked special. The show included plenty of steamy walk-on moments from Geri, and even some Basic Instinct-style leg crossing and uncrossing from Tiffany. All in all, Tiffany’s naked special was a roaring success. There were absolutely no lagging moments, even for those watching the whole set from end to end.
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING…
This all nighter proved that babe channels with numerous shows and big audiences could put their most lucrative girls on prime airtime, as long as the stats always held up. There is often quick thinking, risk-taking and a certain flair needed to get this right though.
If things are too predictable, the babe shows can lose people’s attention. It is also not every babe that can hold their own, or perform in the different ways that are needed over a longer time period, to keep existing viewers and new viewers entertained.
If we take a look at Playboy TV Chat when it went out on Freeview in late 2011, we can possibly see how tricky this was. From the very start, Playboy/RLC would often schedule one principal model per show. This method has several potential dangers. If a customer is not interested in the model who is scheduled, but knows she will be on all night, then that is that customer out of there, At this time, Babestation was operating predicable schedules too, but they had the added bonus of having several different channels on Freeview. Thus, there was always a choice for every viewer.
GETTING IT RIGHT
The babeshows have to create their own engagement, and to get this right. Over predictability can be a big problem. This balance of keeping things, fresh, variable, maximising the top babes during prime broadcasting slots, avoiding repetition, anything really that could cause viewers to go elsewhere or to switch off, is not an easy one. Getting this balance right is possibly the hardest job that the babe channels face, now and in the future.
