Prime time

For other uses, see Prime time (disambiguation).

Prime time (sometimes spelled primetime or prime-time), or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. 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 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) or 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Central and Mountain Time). In India and some Middle Eastern countries, prime time consists of programmes that are aired on television between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.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, Gazi TV, Channel 9, and Channel i, broadcast their prime-time shows from 20:00 to 23:00 after their primetime news at 19:00. During Islamic holidays, most of the television stations broadcast their specially-produced shows and world television premieres starting from 15:00 to midnight. During Ramadan, the broadcasters also air special religious and cooking shows from 14:00 to 20:00, affecting the primetime hours. Late-night talk shows are also aired from 01:00 to 04:00, except during Ramadan. 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 (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, 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 20:00 and 23:30. Usually, programmes during prime time are domestic dramas, talent shows and reality shows.

Indonesia

Prime time usually takes place from 17:00 to 0:00 in Indonesian time zones, and sinetrons (soap operas) dominate majority of the programming schedules. 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, which have kept their newscasts, Klik Indonesia Petang (at 18:00) on primetime respectively. After prime time, programs classified as Adult, as well as Adult products (generally cigarettes) commercials, may be aired.

Like other Muslim-majority nations, there is also a "midnight prime time" during suhur while the month of Ramadan is commencing. It takes place from 02:00 (or 02:30 in some channels) and ends at the Fajr prayer 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 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 Golden Time (ゴールデン・タイム, gōruden taimu; or just Golden). The term also influenced a nickname of a strip of holidays in Japan known as Golden Week.

Malaysia

Malaysia's 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, 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 the 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 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, during Ramadan, 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 while the month of Ramadan is commencing. It takes place from 02:00 (or 01:45 in some channels) and ends at the Fajr prayer 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 broadcast religious shows during day/evening time slots (between 12:00 and 19:00—time varies on channel) or late-night slot (from 22:00).

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. 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; 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.. 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. Some channels opted to air news instead or airs news after prime time dramas.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, prime time is also known as Golden Time (Vietnamese: Giờ vàng). Prime time starts at 18:00 in the evening and ends at 22:00.

Europe

Hours of start or end for peak times in selected European countries (notice lateness of Southern countries)

Austria

In Austria, prime time usually starts at 20:15 after the news broadcast of ORF 1. Even 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 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 series and late-night news following 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 the 1980s, 20:50 in the 1990s and 2000s, 21:05 in the 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 (The First), Germany's oldest public television network, airs the country's most-watched news broadcast, the main edition of the Tagesschau, 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 other channels—public and private alike—also choose to start their prime time at 20:15. In the 1990s, the commercial channel Sat.1 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 and TV2) 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.