Home & Away

I think it was sort of networked as all the regions showed the same episode on the same day but some showed it at different times depending on what time they had their local news. e.g. Central showed it at 6.00pm as Central News was at 6.25pm but some regions showed it at 5.10pm.

I think Thames/Carlton were responsible for it on behalf of the network though?

so when did Blockbuster get shown? (I know wonrg place but it run daily I alway thourgh it control the 5.10pm slot with 5.40: ITN ealry evening news
at Home and away coming in a 6pm

I can remember blcokbuster at 5.10pm and H&W alway being at 6pm IN STV area for most of it 90;s showing!

Something does make me think Thames bought it to the network as they seemed to heavily premote it like most of their home grown programmes.

Although, of course it did get passed on once they left (got kicked out) of the network

Depends on the region - on HTV in the early 1990s it was;

5.10pm Home and Away
5.40pm News
6.00pm Wales At Six
6.30pm Blockbusters (Tues-Thurs) Regional Progs (Mon/Fri)

Then in the later 1990s they changed things around

5.10 Regional Progs/A Country Practice
5.40 News
6.00 Home and Away
6.25 Wales Tonight

Unlike other aussie soaps that ITV showed at the time all regions showed the same episode of Home and Away each day so it was semi networked really. I think Thames and later Carlton just looked after it on behalf of the ITV Network.

I;m sure STV Dump H&A at 6pm for at least 10 years! and somewhere in 1999 it got moved to 5.10pm, before going back to ^pm slot

( blockbuster controlling that slot until 1993 )

All regions showed Home and Away at 5.05pm from March 1999-June 2000. It was the same time as the ITV News moved from 5.40pm to 6.30pm.

After March 1999 it was only the time of the lunchtime showing of H&A that varied from region to region.

When Home And Away began, TSW showed it at 5:10pm along with the majority of regions. But after only a short time the highly unpopular decision was taken to move the evening showing to 3:27pm - when most of the show's core audience were still at school.

The reason for the move, apparently, was to avoid having to schedule two game shows together in the pre-CITV slot. But as afternoon programmes came and went their argument fell flat, yet Home and Away stayed put. Such flawed scheduling must surely have impacted on local ratings.

TSW eventually bowed to public pressure and moved the evening repeat to 6:30pm in 1992, but only after sustained protests. Not to mention the fact they were about to cease broadcasting and were on a charm offensive to remind viewers what they'd be missing from next January!

Never really thought about that - but presumably one franchise, or the network as a whole, was responsible for imports - and films too. It's not as if ITV only started importing programmes when ITV Plc was created.

That was a bizarre move. Westcountry had it at 5.10pm for the whole time I think. Certainly when I regularly visited Cornwall in 1993/1994 that was the case.

Central started at 6.30pm but this moved to 6pm by 1990/1991. It became 5pm when the new news arrangements came in which saw local ratings take a hit.

Something potentially interesting for UK viewers - some idents/promos from Prime, a regional affiliate of the Seven Network (which produces Home and Away) which I recorded on holiday. I don't have any from Seven themselves although it's very possible for me to arrange some..

Home and Away Ident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVj1SHbv1tM

Home and Away Promo (might have spoilers, beware) - this one's not on YouTube because it kept playing up:
http://www.divshare.com/download/408933-8d8

Correct. But by the time Westcountry came along, the ITV Network Centre was in place and it was more difficult for regions to show network programmes when they wanted.

At the time I welcomed the arrival of the Network Centre, because TSW was too much a law unto itself when it came to scheduling. Unfortunately we now have the opposite situation, and neither extreme is good for ITV.