TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"

Fed up talking videogames? Why?

Are you sad enough to watch any of the following?

Coronation Street
1
2%
Eastenders
0
No votes
Emmerdale
1
2%
Hollyoaks
2
3%
Casualty
0
No votes
Doctors
2
3%
Holby City
1
2%
None
52
88%
 
Total votes: 59
NickSCFC

PostTV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by NickSCFC » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:16 pm

https://inews.co.uk/news/eastenders-cor ... ng-figures

A slump in the popularity of soaps is driving an overall decline in mass audience TV figures.

Despite attempts to boost viewing figures with blockbuster storylines, watchdog Ofcom found in its Media Nations report that the “decreasing popularity of soaps is driving the overall decline”. In 2017, 64 programmes achieved a consolidated audience of more than 10 million viewers, down from 191 in 2007. Fewer blockbuster episodes The number of shows with an audience of over eight million also fell from 634 in 2007 to 201 last year. In 2007, 508 episodes of soaps achieved an audience of at least eight million, but in 2017 this figure was just 63.

Last year there were only four individual episodes that attracted audiences over 10 million. In 2007, EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale averaged 8.7 million viewers between them, but by 2017 this had dropped to 6.9 million. After weeks of build-up, the downfall of serial killer Pat Phelan gave Coronation Street its biggest viewing figures in three years this Spring. The Good Friday episode attracted 9.4m viewers, including those watching on catch-up services X Factor fall Ofcom also said that entertainment shows such as The X Factor have also had an impact on the overall numbers of mass audience programmes.

Last year, not a single episode of the show achieved more than eight million viewers, Ofcom said. The X Factor announced a new judging panel yesterday in a bid to reboot the format after 15 years. BBC decline Channel by channel, BBC One and BBC Two performed worse than total average TV, with viewer minutes declining year on year by 5.1% and 5.5% respectively. However EastEnders is one of the BBC’s most popular programmes on iPlayer. Episodes regularly rack up more than 10m stream requests each month. The EastEnders 2017 Christmas Day special, which traditionally gives the soap a ratings boost, attracted 6.3m live viewers on BBC1, with a further 1.6m watching on iPlayer over the festive period.


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Vermilion
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Vermilion » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:39 pm

You include Holby City, but not Neighbours or Home & Away?

Shocking behaviour, i love my aussie soaps, they're the only ones i actually watch!

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Trelliz
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Trelliz » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:41 pm

If people want to watch artificial caricatures of human beings having incredulously rollercoaster lives you can get that from twitter in real time.

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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Moggy
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Moggy » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:41 pm

Posting in a KK thread. :datass:

NickSCFC

PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by NickSCFC » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:56 pm

Vermilion wrote:You include Holby City, but not Neighbours or Home & Away?

Shocking behaviour, i love my aussie soaps, they're the only ones i actually watch!


To be fair the article is focused on UK soaps and viewing figures of BBC and ITV in particular.

Meanwhile Amazon/Netflix streaming subscribers have overtaken Sky/Virgin/BT pay TV subscribers.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/ ... v-services

By contrast, the dramatic increase in the popularity of the Silicon Valley streaming services in the UK fuelled a 28% surge to £2.3bn in what Ofcom terms online audio-visual revenues. Within this, subscription on-demand revenues – mainly viewers paying for Netflix and Amazon – leapt by 38% to almost £900m.

Growth has been explosive: in 2012, , subscription on-demand revenues were just £52m.

While Netflix and Amazon spend more than $10bn (£7.6bn) annually on content, with a significant proportion on original content such as Stranger Things, the Ofcom report found that spending by the UK’s main free-to-air channels on homegrown shows hit a 20-year low: the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 spent £2.5bn on UK-made shows last year, a 28% fall on the peak of £3.4bn in 2004.

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Moggy
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Moggy » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:04 pm

I can’t remember what year it was, but the last time I watched a soap was when Dirty Den returned to Eastenders.

NickSCFC

PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by NickSCFC » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:27 pm

Moggy wrote:I can’t remember what year it was, but the last time I watched a soap was when Dirty Den returned to Eastenders.


According to the Telegraph his divorce (Christmas 1986 episode) was watched by 30 million viewers.

Last year's Christmas episodes had a measly 7.9m viewers across BBC One and iPlayer.

How times have changed for the better

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0 ... audiences/

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Miguel007
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Miguel007 » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:30 pm

I used to watch Aussie Soaps when I was at school [pre-1999] and the last time I watched Corrie or EastEnders was 'Who Shot Phil Mitchell' or Corrie's Live episode.

Funnily enough I seen an article today; Home and Away's Pippa is going into Neighbours as Susan Kennedy's sister! :o

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/neighbo ... -and-away/

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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Jenuall » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:47 pm

Never watched them, have no plans to start now.

Houesmates used to watch Neighbours and Hollyoaks back in Uni so I guess I have been a passive consumer at times.

Even though the ratings are dropping I can't believe that 6-10 million people don't have something better to do than watch this shite!

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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by KK » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:57 pm

Last episode of Eastenders I watched featured the ghost of Pat Butcher talking to Peggy before she killed herself.

A fitting end to turn it all off, I thought.

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Alvin Flummux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:00 pm

I don't really care for soaps, but I must admit I enjoyed many an episode of Neighbours, years back.

NickSCFC

PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by NickSCFC » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:09 pm

I wonder how they'll actually go about ending them once the time comes?

Coronation Street demolished as part of a "Pathfinder" regeneration scheme?

Eastenders zombie apocalypse?

What were the final episodes of Crossroads and Brookside like?

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Knoyleo
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Knoyleo » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:14 pm

None on 100%? :shock:

Is this the last divisive topic on GRcade?

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Rapidly-Greying » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:28 pm

Another neighbours fan here. I stopped watching it when they killed Harold bishops granddaughter Serena. I liked it because it acknowledged the real world,they'd reference films and tv shows. And who can forget when the pet shop boys stopped in Ramsey street to ask for directions.

Home and away though, bucket of runny shite.

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Alvin Flummux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:41 pm

NickSCFC wrote:Coronation Street demolished as part of a "Pathfinder" regeneration scheme?


Operation Yewtree comes to the street. Everybody is arrested and imprisoned.

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Ecno
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Ecno » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:47 pm

Is this because of the rise of reality shows like Made in Chelsea, and TOWIE? Aren't they just in effect soaps rebranded as reality shows?

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NickSCFC

PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by NickSCFC » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:48 pm

Ecno wrote:Is this because of the rise of reality shows like Made in Chelsea, and TOWIE? Aren't they just in effect soaps rebranded as reality shows?


More to do with more choice of channels and the growing popularity of Amazon/Netflix among younger viewers.

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Vermilion
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Vermilion » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:50 pm

Rapidly-Greying wrote:Another neighbours fan here. I stopped watching it when they killed Harold bishops granddaughter Serena. I liked it because it acknowledged the real world,they'd reference films and tv shows. And who can forget when the pet shop boys stopped in Ramsey street to ask for directions.


I've been watching it since 1995, and as you were watching before the air disaster in 2005, you must remember Dee Bliss (Madeleine West).

Last year, the actress rejoined the cast as a conwoman pretending to be Dee (Andrea Somers) who tricked Toadie out of a whole heap of money. They thought it was over, but now Sonya (Toad's 2nd wife) found out that she has turned up in a hospital in Hobart, only this may not be the fake Dee, it could well actually be the real Dee who was missing presumed dead after the wedding day disaster in 2003.

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Frank
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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Frank » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:58 pm

The air crash was the beginning of the end for neighbours. Soaps don't need massive disasters shoehorning in year or so. Didn't everywhere burn down a few years later, too?

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PostRe: TV soaps are finally dying, "driving an overall decline in TV viewing figures"
by Vermilion » Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:05 pm

Frank wrote:The air crash was the beginning of the end for neighbours. Soaps don't need massive disasters shoehorning in year or so. Didn't everywhere burn down a few years later, too?


The fire was around 8-9 months before the plane crash (though the fire episode was probably one of the finest episodes they ever did).

Neighbours went through a particularly rough patch around 2008-11, but then some new producers were brought on board and it's improved massively since.


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