The Future Popularity of British Soap Operas

The Future Popularity of British Soap Operas

The issue of whether soaps can sustain their popularity is very

debateable as the overall viewing figures for soaps have fallen, for

example figures for Eastenders in 1995 where sixteen million

(according to BARB) whereas in 2005 the average viewing figures were

about eight to nine million. There are different factors that could be

associated with this decline such as more competition for the

audience, more channels and soaps, scheduling issues and the changing

dramatic styles of soaps themselves. Another factor that must be

considered is the publicity surrounding soaps in the wider media as

influencing the level of sustainable popularity that they may have.

Technological advances have resulted in the rise of digital television

where the viewers have a much wider choice of channels and programmes

to choose from, this has brought about an influx of American shows

with which British soaps have to compete with. Furthermore the showing

of these programmes on terrestrial channels such as Channel 5 has led

to British soaps having to compete with these imports on the standard

five channels which wasn’t the case in 1995 as there was no Channel 5

hence a reason why figures may have slumped. If one extra channel may

have had quite an impact on viewing habits then digital television

with a grave increase in channels and programmes would only mean that

the popularity of soaps could suffer further and they might not

sustain their popularity. Also the low cost high connection speeds of

broadband has allowed many people to access to numerous amounts of

programmes that they might not have been able to have seen before as

broadband was either not introduced or many people couldn’t afford it.

The rise of digital television has led to much more airtime to fill

and this would result in more American imports with which the British

soaps have to further compete with. This would make it difficult for

the soaps to sustain their popularity however a factor that that would

hinder soaps’ efforts in trying to attract viewers could be due to the