Audience Profile

Once we conducted our research we were able to develop a firm understanding of our target audience, prior to the basic idea that served as a guide in the creation of our questionnaire. Using the conclusions we drew from our research, we were able to complete an audience profile and determine our finalised target audience.

Demographics:

·         Age: 15-25

·         Sex: Both

·         Our chosen TV channel and scheduling to broadcast our soap opera will be influenced by the age demographic of our target audience. BBC1 and Channel 4 proved to be the most prevalent of channels and we can deduce that this is due to the contrasting aspects of the national reverence of the BBC and the youthful visions of Channel 4. Viewers may well know the BBC for their peak time slots filled with programmes that attract mass audiences, such as Eastenders. On the other hand, while Channel 4 do not have predominantly valued peak times, their ethos of being an innovative, creative and diverse channel means a younger audience is drawn to their promise of a variety of cultures, locations and circumstances that represent their lives today.

Social and psychological factors:

·         Our target audiences’ preferred time of viewing is the late evening slot around 7/8/9pm. This is due to the lack of free time in their schedule, e.g.  because of school, university and/or work.

·         This schedule also would affect the amount of times a week they are able to watch Soap Operas; we discovered that our target audience would only view or want to watch a Soap three times a week.

·         Through our research, we discovered the audience’s preferences towards the nature of the soap and successful audience pleasures. With none of our participants selecting ‘Neighbours’ as their favoured soap, we realised that audiences find comfort and pleasure in storylines, settings, scenes and characters that they can relate to. Therefore, as ‘Neighbours’ is set in Australia, audiences may be deterred by the change of surroundings, accent and lack of familiar lifestyle. In conclusion, it would be more beneficial for our soap to be set in the UK as to not dissuade viewers with unrelateable material.

·         Furthermore, we discovered that a popular choice of soap is ‘Coronation Street’, and we could hypothesise that this is due to the humour and comedy element that is lacking in the other soaps.

·         However, it also appears that audiences find pleasure in the most dramatic and dark of storylines with murder and crime being a popular choice for our questionnaire participants. It seems that with realistic characters and misé-en-scene the audience can partake in suspended disbelief as they build relationships with characters, which then makes for more of an impact when dramatic scenes are suddenly thrust upon the audience.

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.

Questionnaire Results Graphs

Questionnaire Totals

	Men Aged 15-20	Men Aged 20-25	Women Aged 15-20	Women Aged 20-25
3) What soap opera do you prefer?
Eastenders	1	2	4	1
Coronation Street	1	2	2	1
Emmerdale	1	0	0	0
Hollyoaks	2	2	1	1
Neighbours	0	0	0	0
4) What type of storylines interest you?
Love	0	1	4	1
Affairs	1	1	4	3
Murder	3	3	3	3
Crime	3	3	3	1
Family Feuds	0	3	2	1
Revenge	4	2	3	0
5) What time are you most likely to watch  soap operas?
Afternoon- i.e. 1pm/2pm	0	0	0	0
Early Evening- i.e. 5pm/6pm	1	1	2	2
Later Evening- i.e. 7pm/8pm/9pm	4	4	5	1
6) How many days a week would you watch  a  soap opera?
Five	2	0	0	1
Four	1	1	1	1
Three	2	4	6	1
7) What TV channel do you prefer?
BBC1	2	2	1	1
BBC3	2	1	3	0
ITV	2	1	1	1
Channel 4	1	2	3	1
Channel 5	0	0	1	0
8) What type of characters interest you?
The Criminal	2	3	1	0
The Unconventional Families	3	2	6	2
The Unstable	4	3	3	1
The Loose Woman	1	3	1	2
The Loverat	0	1	4	3
9) Do you prefer programmes set in the  city or the country?
The City	4	5	6	3
The Country	1	0	1	0

Selection of Our Results

Soap Ratings

Eastenders ratings:

·         Eastenders proved to be very popular, Appreciation indexes (Is an indicator of the public’s appreciation out of 100 for a television or radio programme) revealed this. By achieving 55-60 out of 100 at the launch, and rising to 85-95 out of 100 later on.

·         When the show first launched in 1985 it attracted approximately 17 million viewers

·         Combining the omnibus and the original the Christmas day episode in 1986 where Den Watts handed over the divorce papers to then wife Angie, the episode attracted 30 million viewers. This has been the highest rated episode of a soap in British television history.

·         Eastenders regularly attracts 7 to 12 million viewers per episode.

·         In 2001 Eastenders and Coronation Street clashed for the first time; however Eastenders won the battle gaining 8.4million viewers whilst Coronation Street gained just 7.3 million viewers.

·         The live 25^th anniversary episode which was shown on 19^th of February 2010, which revealed Stacy Branning as Archie Mitchell’s killer, gained 16.41 million viewers

Coronation street ratings:

·         During the 1960’s-1980’s coronation streets averaged over 20 million viewers per episode. However during the 1990’s and early 2000’s the soap only had an average of 15-20 million viewers per episode. Currently ratings have dramatically dropped and Coronation Street now only has between 8 and 14 million viewers per episode.

·         On Christmas day 1987 an average of 28.5 million viewers tuned in to watch Hilda Ogden leave the street to start a new life as a house keeper for Dr Lowther.

·         For their 50^th anniversary tram crash anniversary Coronation Street attracted 14 million viewers.

Emmerdale Rating:

·         On average episode attracts 7-10 million per episode

·         Emmerdale attracted its highest ratings of 18 million on December 30 1993 when a plane crash in the village killed four villagers.

·         September 21^st 2006 saw Emmerdale beat Eastenders in ratings, gaining 8.57 million viewers for when Cain dingle kidnapped tom and Sadie king. Whilst Eastenders attracted only 4.77 million viewers.

Hollyoaks ratings:

·         Due to being aired to a niche audience Hollyoaks does not gain many viewing figures

·         At one point Hollyoaks dropped to under 1million viewers for a few episodes.

Analysis of Soap Trailers

Eastenders: Kat and Alfie

Having these two characters return to the soap after a dramatic few episodes has a mostly positive impact on the audience. These two characters, Alfie (Jack the lad) and Kat (Strong woman), were the ones people loved because of their up and down relationship and dramatic fights or romantic scenes. The have a wide variety of storylines which can be acted of one character having their own storyline to progress through then leave. In addition having the western theme music that is associated with a standoff battle creates tension and gives a twist to their relationship; they seem to always be on and off but with their return are portrayed as having a competition as they stand facing each other metres apart staring into each other’s eyes. It also gives the audience a hope of a theatrical comeback and keeps them waiting for the episodes to air. Furthermore, the sound effect of a gun being pulled form its holster implies that Kat is dangerous. The cinematography is film-like and along with the western standoff creates suspense between the two main characters as well as those surrounding them and entices the audience in order to see where it leads. Kat is represented as a strong woman yet a loose woman due to her informal clothing and poncho appealing to the male viewers, yet the poncho probably has been worn to associate with the cowboy theme. Also, one shot involves panning from the boots of Kat up to her facing, lingering on specific body parts such as her legs representing her again as a loose woman. She is displayed as a dominant person in this trailer and appears to be in control as well as intimidating. Alfie is represented as a protective husband who, in one way, comes to rescue Kat. However, the low key lighting and the shadow on Alfie’s face creates a sense of mystery and could suggest a surreptitious demeanour and hidden secrets. They are both strong minded character and are likely to engage in battle to fight for what they believe in or want. The other characters within this trailer appear less superior, for example, a girl stops laughing showing a lack of dominance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p4xlLezos0

Coronation Street: Tram Crash

To have a lot of information revealed to the audience can be shocking, although many audience members knew what was coming but they do not who will die. The trailer is fast paced, the action is demonstrated through the constant switching between different characters, and this impacts the audience as they now feel part of the incident (tram crash). It also displays how rapidly the situation is happening and how the incident is not clear enough to distinguish what is going on, creating a sense of mystery to the storyline. The slow motion shots of fire and destruction creates drama and a dark tone to the trailer. To have no diegetic sound at the beginning gets a larger reaction from the audience making them more responsible to the trailer. The only sound the audience can hear is the melancholy orchestral music that sets the audiences mood and provokes them to sympathise with the characters. This sympathy is supported by the emotive shots of the characters expression and the dramatic dialogue. The diegetic sound only comes in when Fizz has a major problem and possible storyline that will be followed in later episodes. However, the sudden change in music to a higher tempo keeps up with the fast paced incident, displaying drama and a suspense filled atmosphere. All characters are represented as being in shock and showing fear, panic and worry about the event that had just taken place. The characters are seen as unified and are represented as helpful and caring towards the others, working together as a community. This nature shown by specific characters and authoritative figures represents them as heroes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnk8htigIpc

 

Hollyoaks: Mercedes Wedding

The initial build up to the wedding has been a long wait for viewers and to finally release the trailer gives the audience something to look forward to and a reason to keep watching. To have everyone dressed in black implies that the wedding is not going to turn out happily for the couple, but although this is revealed, many storylines are made and, as a result of the wedding, are resolved from the wedding. The song, more specifically, the line “It’s a nice day for a white wedding”, is highly ironic and completely contrasts with the darkness of the clothes and the fact that it is clearly not going to be a nice day. The fading of the music on specific characters suggests that they are important with this storyline or ones that are connected with the wedding. Every character is represented as being very shocked, upset or unhappy about the wedding. Some actions performed by the characters may foreshadow future possibilities for the storyline. For example, Silas waving malevolently to Mercedes as she walks down the aisle foreshadows that that he could hurt her in the episodes to come. Also by Silas wave in such a manner impacts the audience by making them feel uncomfortable and victimised by Silas, this identifies him as a Propp’s stock character, the villain. Mercedes, being the bride, is shown to be crying as she approaches the altar therefore showing us that this is a difficult time for her and she is not happy about going through with the wedding because of her secrets and reluctance to make Riley, the groom, heartbroken. The tears show vulnerability within her and could suggest a stereotypical princess in distress character.  Also the little amount of light streaming in symbolises a small amount of hope, being trapped or in a state of ambivalence, intriguing the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4