SOAP OPERA TRAILER TIMINGS INFORMATION

Soaps each have their own target audiences, but who are the soap trailers aimed at?
As a group we each conducted research into soap opera trailers, the times they are on and what shows they are in the ad breaks between. This is what we found out.
For the soaps Coronation Street and Eastenders I have seen many trailers advertising them shown after the time of 6pm. I would think the reason behind this, it the fact that most people would be home from work, many of which, would be watching TV to relax. In effect, soap trailers are aimed at everybody, as they want whoever to be viewing the channel to stop for a moment and see the trailer.
On BBC1 for instance, Eastenders trailers can be seen after the 10pm news, the reason for this would be the fact that the 10 o'clock news has very large viewing figures, meaning they would almost be forced into seeing the trailer directly after, catching many peoples attention. By putting it at this time, there would be a wide variety of people seeing the trailer, and people who watch the news can potentially be from any demographic group, from A to E. Therefore the soap trailer is being aim at a wider audience than the soap itself.
Eastenders trailers have also been seen after the show Doctor Who, yet again this popular show gains a very large audience, meaning many would see the trailer afterwards. Doctor Who is also an example of a TV drama, soap operas are a variation on TV dramas, the fact that the trailer has been shown after this show, could be suggesting to the audience that they may also enjoy watching the soap. Those who watch Doctor Who would most probably be from the same demographic groupings as whose who enjoy soap operas, therefore they are aiming directly at their desired audience.
The channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, had a trailer that was shown quite late after a spin off program of the show Inbetweeners. Hollyoaks is different to other soaps in the respect that it has a very specific target audience of teens and young adults. This target audience is what is has in common with the comedy show, Inbetweeners, meaning putting the trailer after this program would hopefully attract the desired audience of young people and students, demographic grouping E.

I have also witnessed a trailer for the ITV soap Emmerdale, this was shown at 9:30pm in an ad break between the shows X Factor and Downton Abbey. The X Factors is one of the most popular family shows on TV, the X Factors doesn't have a specific target age range, although i would think it is aimed at those in demographic groups C-E. In contrast the period drama, Downton Abbey, i would say is aimed at a more sophisticated audience, of those over 20 and in demographic groupings B, C and even maybe A. By placing a soap opera trailer and the end of one show and before the start of another, means it is quite likely you could have two audience types tuned into the channel, meaning a broad range of people will see the trailer.
By knowing how and when TV channels choose to show their soap opera trailers, it gave us greater knowledge into how soap opera trailers are made and aired on a professional level. By finding out how channels specifically place trailers between shows, we found out that there was a lot more to learn about these trailers than we first thought.

- Amy Bowman