Scheduling Exercise

In order to get an idea of the best time to show our soap, I decided to carry out a scheduling exercise. I did this so our soap is not in large competition with more established soaps such as Eastenders, Hollyoaks, etc. I researched the timings for popular soaps by looking at a TV guide:

From looking at the timings of soaps, I have found that between the times of 5pm and 7pm, programs such as Neighbours and Hollyoaks are shown. This is the time after people come home from institutions such as school and college. As Neighbours has a target audience of an older audience, it may be that they have chosen this time as grandparents may pick up their grandchildren from school, which works well in terms of getting an idea as to when they will be free. Hollyoaks is aimed at young adults, which therefore explains why they have chosen this time to show their soap. They also show this soap at 7pm on E4, which gives a strong indication that their intended audiences are younger viewers. On the other hand, programs shown between the times of 7pm and 9pm is a prime time for family audience, as this is the time where the whole family are home sitting around the TV. Soaps such as Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street are shown at these times as they are targeted to a family orientated audience. They are shown at this prime time in order to get the highest chance of gaining their target audience.

Overall, I feel that the best time to show our soap is between the times of 5:00pm and 6:00pm as this will prevent us from facing direct competition from established family orientated TV soap operas such as Eastenders.

Analysis of Questionnaires

Using Microsoft Excel, I produced bar graphs and pie charts for each question to present the findings of my research in quantitative form.

This bar graph shows the majority of the responses of the questionnaires were by females as the questionnaire was carried out with 19 female participants and only 11 males. This however is not a weakness for our research as our soap is mainly aimed at females; therefore their views need to be considered more than the views of males for this particularly task.

This pie chart shows that the majority of the participants were those aged 13-18, which is the age our group decided to make our target audience as our soap is based on the lives of four teenaged girls.  

The bar graph shows that most participants (14) watched 0 to 1 episodes of a soap per week. 13 participants watched soaps 2 to 3 times a week, only 3 participants watched 4 to 5 soaps a week and no participants watched above 6 soaps per week. This showed that the majority of the participants of the study watched a maximum of 3 soaps per week.

This pie chart shows that 34 per cent of the participants found the time 8pm to 9pm the most convenient for watching a soap with 30 per cent preferring the time of 9pm to 10pm. 23 per cent of participants found the time of after 10pm most convenient, and 13 per cent found the time of 7pm to 8pm most convenient.  The times between 5pm to 7pm were not convenient for any of the participants in our study.

 
The bar graph shows that the most preferred soap participants watch is ‘Eastenders’ which 24 participants out of 30 watch. Second to that, 22 participants watch ‘Hollyoaks’ and 21 participants watch ‘Waterloo Road’, which are also soaps aimed at the youth. It was found that 8 participants watch ‘Neighbours’, 2 participants watch ‘Coronation Street’ and 2 participants watch ‘Emmerdale’ which is predictable as most of our participants are aged between 13 to 18 and these three soaps target the elder ages.

This questionnaire has helped me with my soap as it I have been able to obtain the information required for knowing about audience preferences in terms of soap operas. Using the findings from this study, I can see that the majority of female participants aged 13-18 years old preferred to watch 0-3 soaps per week, which is understandable, as most of these teenagers are probably busy in full time education. Also, as most of these participants said that the most convenient time for them to watch a soap is between the times of 8pm-9pm. therefore, we will try to show our soap on the times most convenient for our intended audience. However, we can only do this after checking the times of scheduling for other more established soaps, in order to prevent us from direct competition. Judging by the soaps that most of our participants watch, it is clear to us that they are more into the family soap of Eastenders, as well as Hollyoaks and waterloo road, which are aimed at the target audience we will also be sharing. Therefore, we need to avoid scheduling our soap at the times these three soaps are shown.