The benefits of multiple programme names

Channel 5 up to their usual tricks:

Listings mag: The Secret World of Doggy Daycare
EPG: Good Dog, Bad Dog: Inside the World of Doggy Daycare
Programme Titlecard: Dog School


Seemingly a new programme rather than a repeat, so not the case of trying to pass of something old as something new. I just don't get the benefits to doing this - not just occassionally but routinely in the case of C5, especially when people may go looking for a show on My5 afterwards. In this case it's only listed on My5 under the EPG title.


They were rightly called out on Twitter earlier when trying to promote the Hairy Bikers chocolate based show (off the back of Bake Off's chocolate week) as promoting the show that aired in four different time slots with three different names. I just genuinely don't understand the advantage of this tactic - a tactic which is clearly deliberate considering how often it happens.

Called out in a reply on Twitter by an account called TV Zone - one account. It's just not the issue that it's made out to be on here.

Though I notice the My5 URL is "the-secret-life-of-doggy-daycare", which is different again to the other three options you presented.

I suspect this thread was created so Brekkie can have a pop at Channel 5 again.

Ignoring the unwarranted Brekkie bashing, I personally still find it a bit disrespectful to repackage old programmes as new with different names. I'm sure C5 has some good programmes, but unfortunately with tactics like that (plus their awful clip shows with all the video ripped straight from YouTube circa 2005) it makes me stay away.

You can at least see the motive when it's a case of repackaging older programmes, whether it's simply deceit or genuinely trying to capture a new audience by rebranding the show. It's also understandable some shows may be renamed to either capitalise on a current event or popular show/celeb, or due to perhaps unforeseen issues with the original name. Similarly having to sometimes rename shows when they're sold abroad is understandable and happens for a range of reasons.

But I just don't get the logic in repeatedly giving new shows seemingly three names. It is such a common occurance on C5 that it must clearly a strategy they believe works and there must be a logic behind it but for the life of me I can't work it out.

I know it's not entirely the same, but the "new" series of Police Interceptors is actually just a series of clip shows. I guess they can't easily make a new series right now, but still, it's not as if the old episodes aren't repeated endlessly without a need for repackaging.

Perhaps they’ve decided, maybe based on research, that in different contexts, different programme names are more attention-grabbing or enticing.

Using your example of Dog School, I can see how they might have decided it needed a more descriptive and interesting title in the listings or EPG.

‘The Secret World of Doggy Daycare’ expands on it a bit for the listings, and might provide a bit more intrigue. But this would be no good for an EPG, as all you’d see is ‘The Secret World of’. So they came up with something else for that, this time beginning with a more sensationalist name so it stands out amongst dozens of other titles.

But then why not have ‘Good Dog, Bad Dog: Inside the World of Doggy Daycare’ in the listings as well as the EPG? Obviously I’m only guessing, but maybe this was considered too trashy for readers of listings who are probably older and more conservative.