The following quantitative analysis and description is based on the recording of seven weekdays. It describes the programmes as they have been really telecast and deviates slightly from the printed programme schedules, since it takes into account those changes which occur without prior announcements.

The tables in the Appendices which break down the total air-time into time-slots allocated to different languages, programme types, and so forth, do not take into account those “hidden” programme types which are never published, although they are telecast each day and take up a considerable amount of air-time. They comprise commercials, internal publicity of the television station, national policy messages, and presentation of national symbols. Taking these programmes statistically correct into account would have required an enormous time-taking effort, since these programmes, in particular the commercials, are quite unevenly distributed, so that some popular dramas are surrounded and interrupted up to five times by over forty advertisements, while other programmes are not affected at all. Time for these programme types has been taken cumulatively but, nevertheless, carefully. The exact timing of these short items (often less than 20 seconds), however, is prone to marginal errors. In addition, the necessary change of cassettes was made on four days during a commercial interval between programmes; the missing data have been averaged from the remaining three days.

Figures, which as a whole are taken as approximating the average television week in Singapore, have been rounded so as to add up to 100%. Hence, small differences in quantitative value should not be taken as a basis for far-reaching conclusions. None of the findings of this study will be based on small nominal differences.

Type of Programmes: Categories

The categories used to describe the different types of television programmes are not fully mutually exclusive. It is not always easy to separate one category from another. The ensuing difficulties in unambiguously describing actual television programmes by means of these categories is enhanced by the fact that an individual programme may contain elements which fall into different categories.