Analysis of Audience Questionnaire

We conducted a questionnaire to both target our most accessible and profitable audience but also to find out how we can take into consideration the wants and needs of as many demographic and psychographic groups as possible, increasing our chances of a lucrative revenue.

Firstly, it is obvious that Eastenders is favoured amongst our potential audience as we found both men and women of ages 15-25 preferred the soap itself but also it’s city location was found to be more popular than the countryside.

The preference of storylines did not appear so clear cut. Many women were drawn to the idea of love and affairs but the choices of our overall selected participants was split over all options of murder, crime, family affairs, love, affairs and revenge. We soon realised it would be possible and incredibly beneficial to link these subcategories into one storyline. It seems audiences can find excitement in any story that can unfold into crisis and adversity and so by giving them a storyline with several strands of drama, we can address all of their ideologies of an engaging soap opera storyline.

Additionally, after the majority of the audience seemed interested by the idea of our characters being from an ‘unconventional family’, we realised we could encompass many different characters and walks of life to interest audiences that are different from the characters presented and give integration and social interaction to those who can relate to and feel comfortable with characters. Soap operas are based on reality and real situations, however dramatic, and so we want to have an aspect of suspended disbelief where audiences can draw on their own emotions and feel emotions of the characters – giving them a vast array of characters with different living circumstances, mannerisms and personalities we hopefully can attract a mass audience.

On the matter of viewing slots for our soap opera, evening seems a clear decision as not a single participant preferred afternoon times to early evening or late evening. Despite this meaning we would be competing for peak times on our broadcasting channel as well as competing for our target audience against other soaps that are shown at similar times, an evening slot would still draw greater audience figures and a wider range of audience than a daytime slot due to more people being able to watch TV at later times; after work/school and daytime commitments.

Furthermore, it seems an audience would be attracted most by a soap that is broadcasted three times a week. It is so easy to lose track of storylines in a soap if you do not watch it regularly enough, therefore if a soap is scheduled five times a week and it is impossible for you to watch it that often, you may become complacent or lose interest completely. When presenting a new soap to the public, we aim to give them enough to familiarize themselves with but also allow them just enough episodes to fit into a general schedule, this way audience figures do not suffer due to complex storylines not being kept up with and a loyal fan base can be generated and maintained.