Soap operas are a very popular content (Ross & Nightingale, 2003; Geragthy, 1991; Kilborn, 1992) and a relevant genre for the television industry (Hobson, 2003, Wittebols, 2004). These programs have been very important for the dynamization of the local audiovisual production systems and a key element in the loyalty scheduling strategies. In this research, our main objective is to analyze the presence of soap operas in the daily schedules of channels from the five biggest European markets: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. This allows us to explain the uniqueness of the soap opera genre based on the analysis of the origin, the broadcast time slot and the differences and similarities among local markets and ownership.
This study has been carried out within the framework project “From Hegemony to Competition: Transformations of European Public Channels’ Programming Strategies Over the Last 30 Years (EU5)” of the Spanish National R&D Plan, founded by MICIU-FEDER (reference PGC2018-094863-B-100) developed by GRISS (Research Group on Image, Sound and Synthesis) of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). The focus of this project is to explore and explain the evolution of European television schedules during the last 30 years of the DTT general-interest television channels from the main European television markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom) which represent 25 channels: 11 public (Das Erste, ZDF, BBC One, BBC Two, France 2, France 3, Rai Uno, Rai Due, Rai Tre, La1 and La2) and 14 commercial (ProSieben, Sat.1, RTL, Channel 4, ITV1, TF1, M6, Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4, Antena 3, Cuatro, La Sexta and Telecinco).
In this paper, we have used content analysis to explore and describe the role of soap operas during the last three television seasons. Among other variables, we analyse the type of production (in-house, co-production, acquired), the topics (adventures, thrillers, drama, comedy…) and the broadcast time slot. Among the preliminary results of the research we have found significant differences between the countries analysed in terms of scheduling strategies, but prioritizing in all cases the domestic production.