Channel Five has snatched the rights to Neighbours, after the BBC pulled out of the bidding earlier today.
The Neighbours deal is a coup for Five, which has been struggling with falling ratings for the past couple of years.
Five is likely to pair Neighbours in a daytime Australian soap double bill with Home and Away, which it stole away from ITV seven years ago.
Very sad day for BBC One, to lose that audience share will dent their overall performance and with EastEnders at 4m viewers last night, surely they should do all they can to shore up their figures. I'm sure over 8 years Doctors would cost more than £300m to produce and that an aquisition like Neighbours maybe isn't such a bad move in comparison.
It's the policy for the BBC to use independent producers but then if the price goes up, they just lose the successful programmes? The Simpsons harmed the demographics on BBC Two - that channel never recovered, nor did itv at tea-time when Home and Away defected. Not a wise move on the BBC's behalf nor FreemantleMedia - I wonder what Reg Grundy thinks about today's deal.
Hopefully the churn won't be too high, especially as so many have digital thesedays and receive Five no problem. Either way though, Home and Away actors saw their profiles plunge in the UK since the move so I'm sure the Neighbours cast will be livid at the knock-on effect for their panto fees and music deals.
Surely this will be another nail in the coffin for Neighbours, its just shows what fremantle think of the biggest audience for the show.
So will the BBC pull the show from 5:30 and stick it some where else now?
So will the BBC pull the show from 5:30 and stick it some where else now?
Ive got a feeling the Weakest Link will move and be possibly made shorter or cut into CBBC or even CBBC will move to BBC Two now. How about Let Me Entertain You, Donny Osmond's new show Idently or The One Show?
Looks like it's the beginning of the end for CBBC. I do hope though that Newsround remains. Maybe it might move back to 5 o'clock (where it traditionally always was), and Blue Peter be shifted to the 4.30pm show. That would give the timetablers a clear 50min. show until the 6.
So will the BBC pull the show from 5:30 and stick it some where else now?
Ive got a feeling the Weakest Link will move and be possibly made shorter or cut into CBBC or even CBBC will move to BBC Two now. How about Let Me Entertain You, Donny Osmond's new show Idently or The One Show?
Surely 'Doctors' is the obvious solution. They'll just move that or repeat it.
Well done to Five for winning the contract. I think its the end though, look how Five killed off Home and Away.
Home & Away doesn't do that badly on five. Using your analogy surely the BBC has killed neighbours. Didn't it used to get 12-15 million viewers in the old days!!
It's the policy for the BBC to use independent producers but then if the price goes up, they just lose the successful programmes?
Neighbours wasn't an independant production, it's a foreign aquisition (and of course Freemantle isn't an indie!). Things work diffrently to an independant production, such as The Apprentice for example, because that was made for the BBC.