Soap Opera Trailer Timings

I have been watching television recently to try and find the timings for different soap trailers. I have watched a variety of channels to catch the trailers and have found three good examples.

Saturday- After Doctor Who BBC1 8pm- Trailer for Eastenders

• This trailer has been placed here to target a younger audience and to entice a family audience to the soap.

Saturday- After News BBC1 10PM- Trailer for Eastenders

• This trailer would have been placed here to target a higher demographic group, the different groups that they are aiming for is obvious, the audiences between shows such as Doctor Who and The News are very different so they are tar getting a larger range of people.

Saturday- In between Inbetweeners Countdown on E4- 10.45- Trailer for Hollyoaks

• The Inbetweeners bring in a young audience, the age group that usually view the show is between 16-20. The trailer has been placed here to get people that wouldn't usually watch soap operas become interested in soaps such as Hollyoaks.

From doing this you can clearly see the audience which the production team is aiming for, at earlier times in the day the trailers are sad and slow whereas later on different trailer techniques can be used such as in Hollyoaks where the trailer becomes dark, sexy and evil.

Will Howlett