Rule-Based Scheduling and Programming

The Open Media Project Timeslot Scheduler Module is designed to simplify or democratize the scheduling process for any noncommercial media operation.  The system is flexible enough to enable the station director to apply any mix of rules (from freshness to popularity to theme) to automatically generate the programming schedule.

One of the most innovative and democratic variables stations can use to drive the program schedule is viewer ratings.  Votes or ratings can be generated on the website or via phone or SMS, then applied together with other variables set by the station to determine the programming schedule.  Because the options and variables are so extensive, we'll explain one way this system can work by explaining the structure in one station, Denver Open Media.

Denver Open Media's Rule-Based Scheduling:

To give viewers a more stable and predictable viewing experience, all scheduling is done within theme-blocks. In Denver, when a producer submits a show the producer selects the theme block (also known as category or Daypart), along with all other metadata.

Denver has 12 theme blocks, though we recommend 10 categories, which is easier to distribute fairly across weekdays.  Themes are paired, with the theme block containing the most hours of content paired with the theme block containing the fewest hours of content, and so on.

On our basic channel, theme blocks are distributed such that they appear 4 times during the weekedays (one early morning, one late morning, one early afternoon, and one late-night) and one weekend slot. Every show is guaranteed to air once on this basic channel, with producers free to select an open time-slot for the theme block they've selected for the initial airing.  On the day when the theme block does not appear on our basic Channel, that theme pair is "featured" on our premium channel 57, with the morning and evening prime-time, and late-night slot (which has proven to be the most popular viewing time for Public Access) filled with that theme pair.

Time within the theme pair is split between the two theme categories based on the compared amount of total content in each category.  The slot is divided into 30-minute blocks, with the blocks being distributed in a ratio matching the ratio of content for each category in the pair.  A more detailed description of this 30-minute chunk distribution can be found in the Developer Notes.

Scheduling Within ThemeBlocks:

When desiging a user-driven scheduling system, it was important to us that the viewers have as much control as possible.  At the same time, we want to ensure that there is room for everything on the channel.  So, while we wanted viewer votes/ratings to drive the scheduling on our "premium" channel 57, we designed the system such that videos are only competing within their theme-block, and thus a video about child abuse need not compete with a rock video.  This approach has ensured that there is room available for the different types of content that may be less popular, but deemed significant to the community.  The theme-blocks are to be reviewed by a community board each year.

While many video sites use a straight-average rating system, this results in misleading ratings, where a show with a single perect review has a higher average than a show with hundreds of perfect ratings and one low rating.  Thus, instead of a straight average, we use what is called a "Bayesian Estimate".  The equasion is borrowed from IMBD's rating system.

Show Score= (v / (v+m)) * R + (m / (v+m)) * C
where:
R = average for the show (mean) = (Rating)
v = number of votes for the show= (votes)
m = minimum votes required to be listed in top 25 (currently 6)
C = the mean for that Theme/category
This formula normalizes scores, that is it pulls a particular score (R) to the mean (C) if the number of votes is not well above m. In other words, if a particular design has only a few votes above the minimum required votes to be listed in top 25 (m), the average score is decreased a little if it is above the mean, or increased a little if it is below the mean in accordance with the normal distribution rule of statistics.

Improvements to this system include series or producer scores, which are averaged with show scores to ensure that new shows from producers or series with a strong track-record have preference.  We also hope to date votes, where in scheduling for the premium channel, recent votes carry more weight than older votes.