Ficción televisiva: representación cultural y explotación económica

The object of this paper is to present a part of a research developed by a group of researchers specialised in different disciplines of communication. This research group aims to achieve an interdisciplinary study about quality standards of fiction television, by using different methodological tools for the analysis of soap operas, media economics and narratology. The main goal of the paper is to show how family is represented on the series in order to appeal the family target. That is why we have chosen series where different families are the protagonists of the stories and most of the conflicts run within the household and are about family relationships. On one hand, we will study the commercial aspects of the television drama, such as audience ratings, advertising income, merchandising and windowing rights, international sales. We want to analyse the factors that make some series so profitable for the channel and the producers. The study of the creative idea and narrative aspects could explain part of this commercial success. So we will study how the characters and the stories are created. The study will focus on three series broadcast by the Spanish television channels, which could be considered as paradigms because of their popularity and profitability. We will analyse Médico de familia, Cuéntame cómo pasó and Los Serrano