Post by Cornwallgirl on Jun 6, 2007 13:21:01 GMT 1
New Neighbours!
What will the soap's move to Five really mean?
It'll be the end of an era next year, when Neighbours ups sticks from the BBC- it's home for over 20 years- to rival channel Five in a deal rumoured to be worth some £300million. Concerned, Inside Soap grilled a Five Spokesperson on how the move will affect viewers....
Q: Will the episodes continue from those shown on BBC1?
A: The changeover should happen around March 2008, and it's our intention to pick up straight from the BBC episodes.
Q: At what times will Neighbours be broadcast?
A: We don't want to show our hand to our competitors too soon, but we're very aware of how well Neighbours works in it's current time slots.
Q: Will the soap still be shown at lunchtimes on weekdays?
A: Yes. The BBC currently airs the same episode of Neighbours twice in one day, whereas we show a repeat of the previous night's Home and Away at lunchtime. So we'll have to decide what will work best for Neighbours.
Q: Are there plans for later showings of an omnibus?
A: We'll screen Neighbours on our digital channel, Five Life, just as we do with Home and Away, and a weekend omnibus is definately in the pipeline.
Q: Will the whole country be able to tune in to Five by spring?
A: The switch from an analogue signal to digital is happening in phases over the next five or six years, but more than 90 per cent of the country currently recieves Five, and the remaining 10 per cent can watch it via digital or satellite transmitters.
Q: Do you have any plans to let us Brits catch up with the Aussie episodes?
A: It's useful for us to have a bit of a gap between UK and Australian episodes, and we're hoping that buffer will remain.
Q: Should we expect to see a huge amount of promotion to highlight the move?
A: Oh yes- there'll be a major marketing campaign! We want to reassure the show's fans that it's not our intention to upset them in any way. We'll be making the transition as smooth as possible.
Although it's a year till the changeover, fans can rest easy, that despite rumours, the BBC won't reduce the screening of Neighbours to just one episode a day....
"There are definately no plans to move Neighbours from it's existing 1.40pm and 5.35pm slots," says our Beeb source.
Inside Soap, 2-8 June 2007
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