Neighbours

God - it only finished two days earlier!


This is why I think it's a bad idea to launch it on Five straight away - taking it off screen for a few weeks, say to Easter, would allow Five to build it up a bit more and promote it as returning to the UK exclusively to Five - not you watched it last week on the BBC, you can watch it this week on Five!


At the moment any promo campaign - however blatant it is in saying Neighbours is moving to Five - will in most viewers eyes just be promoting Neighbours, which while still on air on BBC1 is in many peoples eye just promoting the show on the BBC.



Scheduling wise, Five are moving their lunchtime news to 12.30pm and cutting it to 15-minutes, with an hour filler at 12.45pm before Neighbours at 1.45pm. Home and Away then premieres at 2.15pm, rather than 6pm.


I think Five haven't marked their own stamp on the schedule here enough. Yes, putting Neighbours at 5.30pm was a no-brainer - though IMO they should have kept Home and Away premiering at 6pm, and indeed done the same with the evening edition of Neighbours. Straight away that tells viewers they're doing things differently.


Also, I think they've gone a bit far in keeping Neighbours at virtually the exact time it has been on BBC1 in recent years, and again in the process not thought about Home and Away fans by moving the episodes from Noon to 2.15pm - which is in a completely different part of the daytime schedule.


1.30pm would have been fine for Neighbours, with Home and Away before it at 1pm and the news at 12.30pm. A much neater schedule.

But showing Neighbours at 1.45 and 5.30 is a wise move in a way, because they know that the audience is there. The fact that Neighbours only finishes on BBC One a few days before hand has nothing to do with it. Personally i think that the storyline that Neighbours is currently in the middle of is one of its strongest for years, it is very likely that the avid viewer will continue to watch. The BBC actually made a very foolish move 8 months ago when they announced Neighbours was leaving the BBC, this then saw five seize the chance to announce thet were going to be the new home of Neighbours.

With Home and Away then being on at 2.15 it is like the old days on itv when Home and Away was shown in that slot, in certain regions. five are going to use Neighbours to bring viewers back to Home and Away, afterall they do have very similar audience targets.

That's a very misguided view.


Firstly, viewers today don't care what time ITV regions were showing Home and Away 15 years ago - they care about what time Five has been showing it recently - and since they got hold of Neighbours Home and Away fans have been shown a complete disregard by the channel.


And secondly, if they think using Australia's inferior soap will boost ratings for Australia's number one soap again they are very misguided. Whether airing three days or three months later than it finishes on BBC1, the simple fact is there are still many viewers out there that are idiots and wouldn't dream of following it to Five - and instead just accepting The Weakest Link on BBC1.


The simple fact is Five have paid way over the odds for the show - and they know it too!

I disagree - I think if they took it off the air, it would be more likely that people forget about Neighbours (especially the casual viewer), and get into the habit of doing something else with their time at 1.45 and 5.30. This way, the viewers have no break in their habit, and those who still don't know about the switch and tune in to BBC1 on the 11th of Feb, will either flick over and find it on Five, or find out what the hell's happened before tuning to Five to continue watching.

So what if the current promos are advertising Neighbours in general - sure, it may still have a couple of weeks on the BBC, but any type of promotion for the show is in Five's favour now, and they're certainly not going to begrudge BBC1 continuing to pull in the ratings at 5.35 for two weeks. It puts them in a ever stronger position for the next few years of Neighbours on Five.

who think there might do some moving about after 6 months, as by then people will click its now on five ( hopeful)

Also works against too. Considering myself to be a "casual viewer", I'm not really bothered about moving it to Five and won't be going out of my way to tune in.


However, if they took the break for a couple of months I probably would be more inclined to tune in to see where Five have picked it up from and whether it's worth keeping an eye on.


Remember the casual viewer isn't the loyal viewer - they're not going to be too bothered when channel surfing that it's not on BBC1 one week later, and are just as likely to watch elsewhere as bother with Neighbours on Five. However, if it disappears for a few weeks and you're browsing through the channels and Neighbours suddenly crops up after a few weeks absence, I think you'd be more inclined to watch it.

did that work with Home and away?

Well it was an enforced break with Home and Away, plus also in it's final year or two on ITV it had slipped away in the schedule, airing I think four nights a week at 5pm - think the afternoon edition was axed.


And I think it did work - I certainly remember there being a buzz around it returning to the UK on C5, and I remember tuning in even though I probably wasn't watching when it signed off from ITV.

STV put it on about 6pm
,
it was about 1997 a major change so it going back to 5.10pm
with emmerdale going back to 7pm, and the 6pm slot getting freed up for

Scottish action
what will there think of next - carol vorderen
we can work it out - with Judy finagain
Firday scots sport
and something else, then about two years later bang the news was changed that where I think the trouble started!

The lunchtime edition of H&A was only dropped in some regions in March 2000 (Central and HTV at least had it right until the end in June 2000), and it was only reduced to 4 days a week occasionally when ITV went too close to Oz episodes. At 1 point we were only 4 episodes behind Oz so for the final couple of months it was 4 a week I think.

IMO People are more likely to stick with Neighbours if it moves straight over to Five rather than a break. When Home and Away started on Five there was a significant drop in viewing figures compaired to what it got on ITV (and yes I know Five gets smaller ratings than ITV generally)

From Perfect Blend:

Television schedules released today show that each episode of Neighbours will have ten showings across Five and Five Life.

On Five, each episode will debut at 1.45pm, with a repeat at 5.30pm and in the early hours of the next day, at 5.10am. The 5.10am showing will have no ad break, but will be signed for the hearing impaired. There will also be an omnibus at 12.30pm on Saturdays.

On Five Life, the previous day's episode will be repeated at 9.00am, while that day's episode will be shown again at 7.00pm. There will also be an omnibus on Sundays. These three showings will be repeated, an hour later, on the Five Life +1 channel.

In further news, the documentary New Neighbours On Five will be screened at 6.10pm on Sunday 10th February, the evening before Neighbours makes its debut on the channel. It will feature interviews with cast members and celebrity fans, behind-the-scenes footage and archive clips.

Firstly it may be Australia's inferior soap compared to Home and Away BUT in the UK it is Neighbours that has the much stronger following and the much higher ratings than H&A!!!!

As such I think Five are actually being sensible here in showing Neighbours BEFORE H&A as some viewers will stay with the channel - same situation as what ITV does with Corrie using it as a lead-in programme for the next!



There are always idiots out there not realising whether something has moved channel. How many people do you know think that Men Behaving Badly was always a BBC show? or that University Challenge or What The Papers Say have always been on BBC considering WTPS has been on both ITV and C4 previoussly!!!!

How many people followed Eastenders from 7pm to 730pm, or Emmerdale from 7pm to 630pm back to 7pm (although I am sure that in Granadaland it has always been on at 7pm???)?