A soap opera is an on going drama, running all year round. Each episode will have several story lines, one main story line and then a few other, smaller story lines happening at the same time. This keeps the viewers interested at all times, so there's never a gap in the soap with nothing going on.
Eastenders is a soap opera that has been running since the 19th February 1985 on BBC 1 and is still just as popular today as ever. Eastenders was influenced by Coronation street, but it modernized the soap opera, including the first appearance of black characters, Kelvin and Tony Carpenter. It is set in the east end of London and the majority of its characters are working class people and families. The story lines are often based on issues that may happen within families and people all over Britain, although some are a little more exaggerated to make it more exciting and gripping for the viewers.
For example the current main story line is...Anthony puts an eight grand bet on with Michael for Tyler's opponent to win. Tyler enters the ring and is pleased to see Whitney. Tyler's unsettled when he sees the size of his opponent. Jack is furious with Michael for not replacing Stiller as well as 'forgetting' to book a doctor and he ropes in Yusef. Tyler takes a pummelling, but won't throw in the towel. Against the odds, Tyler wins. Tyler tells Whitney that he won the fight for her, then collapses...
As Eastenders is shown on the BBC, it is funded by the licence fee that television owners have to pay. It costs the equivalent od £12.13 per month and £7.96 of that goes to the BBC television, which includes Eastenders. £2.11 goes to the radio stations, which Eastenders is advertised on and £0.66 per month goes to the online viewing of selected BBC television programs, including Eastenders. Although Eastenders doesn't have their own magazine that people can subscribe to, it does appear often in many other magazines, like 'Inside Soap Magazine', in which Eastenders is popular.
The soap opera Eastenders is accessible through not only TV, but internet as well. It is broadcast now, four times a week on BBC 1, with each episode being repeated on BBC 3 at 22.00pm and also available anytime online on BBC iplayer. Along with that, an omnibus addition is shown every Sunday afternoon. As it is available online, it makes the soap not only nationally accessible, but internationally accessible as well. By being available in so many different places and at different times it make it almost impossible to miss. As well as that it also means more advertisement, not only will it have television adverts, but it will be advertised online and on the radio. And as today most of us have one of the sources on and around us nearly all of the time, there is always a way of advertising to many different audiences.
Eastenders is a very well known and loved soap across the UK, this is partly due to the long time it has been running and the gripping story lines, but also the publicity and advertising. It is advertised through the internet, Eastenders will be advertised on the BBC iplayer website, on the BBC1 television channel and the BBC 1 radio station, when a big story is coming up, for example, the live christmas show. As well as this it has many forms of merchandise. There are Eastenders books, DVD's, prints and photo's of cast members. As well as this there was videos, which then got converted to DVD after the year 2000 when a video of 15 years of Eastenders was released featuring footage from 2000 episodes, and was presented by Barbara Windsor. As well as this the soap opera will do a special at christmas, or celebrating an anniversary, which means more advertising and more viewers. For example, on Friday 19th February 2010, Eastenders broadcasted their first ever live episode. 16.6 million people turned on their televisions to watch this episode, due to the vast amounts of advertising that was done, and the fact it was live.
Above is a recent advert for Eastenders. It starts with just a black screen and the words 'It's all kicking off in the Square...' come on the screen in time with the famous Eastenders drum introduction. So from the first 2 seconds, the audience will already recognize it as Eastenders. It then goes on to show clips of the episode coming up, cutting to different scenes, and creating a tense atmosphere. The last clip is again, a black background with the Eastenders title and a voice over stating the time, date and channel of Eastenders.
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