Neighbours for ITV?

"ITV has entered advanced negotiations with Fremantle Media to acquire Neighbours and is understood to have offered up to four times the amount currently paid by the BBC"

- the BBC pays £20,000 an episode at the mo.
- the BBC had a period of exclusive talks with Fremantle, but they failed to renew the deal.
- Fremantle was all set to accept ITV's offer this week, but negotiations hit a glitch over ancillary rights.
- Michael Grade has made the soap his target.
- BBC director of acquisitions George McGhee said: "No deal has been done. We are all still talking to one and other and Fremantle will ultimately do what it wants to do. I'm sure ITV would like to have it but would that be best for Neighbours?"

A summary from a DS member, taken from Broadcast.

Anyway, a lot of fans like the 1:40, 5:35 scenario, so I wonder if ITV would keep those timeslots if they got the show. 5:30pm I can see, but 1:40pm is difficult what with the 1:30pm news. Also, with Neighbours and The Royal Today in daytime ITV, is this overkill?

Me thinks 2pm & 5.30pm.

I don't watch it so I can't really say much about this move, although ITV do have a reputation for soap overkill.

I think there's every possibility they'd move the news back to 12:30, and go News-->Neighbours-->Loose Women, putting Neighbours @ 1.


A-DUH.

ITV are already in soap overkill. This would just move them to superoverkill.

This is already being discussed in the Neighbours thread.

ITV is in "advanced negotiations" with Fremantle to poach Neighbours from the BBC, according to Broadcast.

The broadcaster is thought to have offered Fremantle around £80,000 per episode, four times that of the BBC. The deal would value the Aussie soap, which has a UK audience of 7 million, at more than £20 million a year.

The magazine reports that Fremantle was ready to accept ITV's offer earlier this week but could not finalise terms on additional rights, such as VOD and broadband.

George McGhee, director of acquisitions at the BBC, said that he was still in discussions over renewing the existing deal. "Fremantle will ultimately do what it wants to do," he said. "I'm sure ITV would like to have it but would that be best for Neighbours?"

From DS

have you posted that twice to ensure the thread doesn'tg et closed?

Er... no, I've posted a newer article with more information.

If ITV does end up with Neighbours, I think the BBC should pre-empt the move to ITV by pulling Neighbours off the air immediately, even while they still have the contract (and probably will for a while) and divert the funds used to acquire it into a beefed up Doctors or a new daytime soap, or perhaps even an extension of the Afternoon Play's of recently. This will allow the BBC to have sometime prepared once ITV's contract kicks in.

7 Million? At 2pm? Dont be silly! I think it should move to ITV as they have plenty of choices where to put it in the scedule. I don't watch neighbours on BBC (because it is at 2pm) but I do watch it at 6:30am on UKTV Gold!

Surely this will be a big mistake. Neighbours has been on the BBC for years, and has been doing well so why move it? Especially to ITV who will probably cancel it after a couple of years tops, and the BBC won't take it back afterwards.

Moving Doctors to year-round production would kill it; especially if it was sent in as a replacement for Neighbours.

I can't see how Neighbours and The Royal Today is any different to Neighbours and Doctors