Audience needs and Lifestyle

In the case of a soap or any other TV programme, the audience needs to be entertained, in the case of Eastenders for example, the audience can be left with a cliff hanger in most ephisodes, this is down to the 'duff duff' that is played at the end of each ephisode, this prompts the audience to want to watch the next ephisode to see what is going to happen next. TV producers usually adopt what is called a target audience, this is a specific group of people that they are aiming to get intrested in the show and therefore watch it day in day out. In terms of lifestyle, your everyday british soaps are usually aimed at people who want to watch something they enjoy when they come home from work, it may not be everyones cup of tea but it keeps us wanting to watch it more and more, it also becomes part of our everyday disscusions, this is because they are shows that try to mirror everyday life, ok maybe not in terms of breaking the law (people don't get murdered almost every day in reality) but it creates stereotypes who we can relate too.

Over time new ways of getting their target audiences involved in soaps have cropped up, for example blogs and forums, in which fans of the soap can interact and share their views on the events and storylines in the soap in question, these various internet - orientated communication methods also allow, in some cases, for fans to talk to the cast and the producers. Due to people voicing concerns, Ofcom was created, this is the company that deals with complaints about television adverts and programmes.

Another way in which watching soaps has developed is that fact that a whole range of different electronic devices now allow us to watch our favourite programmes when we want to, for example BBC iplayer allows people to watch their favourite shows whenever they want too. An example of various electronic devices being used would be a normal family, the parents watching eastenders on the TV, the daughter watching it on her laptop, where as the son will be watching it on his phone, this is a typical situation that demonstrates how viewing programmes has changed. Different types of soap programmes ahev been created such as spin - offs for younger viewers, e.g. E20 and Hollyoaks under - 18.