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Foxtel dumps Shortland Street

Exclusive: After nearly 8 years, long-running NZ soap is now homeless in Australia.

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EXCLUSIVE: After nearly 8 years Foxtel has dumped NZ soap Shortland Street.

A spokesperson tells TV Tonight, “After careful consideration, Foxtel has made the difficult decision not to renew the license agreement for Shortland Street.

“We know how disappointing this is for the program’s passionate fan base, but with viewing declining over time, we have decided to prioritise other programming to ensure we provide fresh options viewing options for subscribers.”

The long-running soap, now in its 29th season, joined Arena in early 2013 after screening on 7TWO and ABC.

Recent data indicates FOX One episodes were attracting just 7000 viewers in Overnight, but drew another 7000 in 7 day Consolidated viewing -a 100% increase.

The end comes in the middle of a significant storyline, following the death of Phoenix (Geordie Holibar).

Shortland Street has also qualified as Australian content under the Free Trade Agreement.

22 Responses

  3. Wow, okay. That’s disappointing. I guess I’ll save money every month on Foxtel as the only reason I have kept it was to watch Shortland Street. Never use it other than that.

    1. hi kristenits veoff found a way to watch shorty.download dailymotion app .on home page go into entertainment
      in the search bar hit shortland street 26th oct
      it wull bring up list of 26th october difdrrent years.scroll down and u will se 26th octover 2020 hit that this is the next episode after the one that finidhed on fowtel where chris blamed tess when finished watching that go to search again and hit shortland street 27th oct …..and so forth.bearing in mind smip weekend dates

      1. Thanks 🙂 also, It is going to start on SBS Viceland where it left off on Foxtel in January 11 weeknights at 5:40pm. On demand from January 1st.

        Do you live in Ipswich? I live in Karalee 🤟

    1. i agree fresh and new re runs of sex and city maybe we should all tell foxtel that we will cancek our subscriptions.u spoke with tvnz they are in discusdions with foxtel to see if dcidion can be changed.all the shit they have on now and take away such a long standing current show.

  6. Seriously – I have been checking everyday since the death eposide and find it not updated on Foxtel Now as I am away at present and thought maybe they’ve not updated it. How do they get into a major plot and drop it – There has to be some other way to watch in Aust, if it is classed as oz content how about they open the website to allow us to stream from TVNZ – I have watched this for more years then I like to admit. Ive never watched H&A or Neighbours ever and have no intent to. undelievable Foxtel

  8. I’ve been watching shortland street for nearly 20 years everytime they cut it from one channel I’d find it on another but always loved the show now it’s been axed again only to be replaced by sex in the city how can you say that this show is bring back shortland street

    1. Yes, I remember Andrew. I thought I was the only one who watched it. 🙂 It didn’t last long. It had a couple of people from then, that went on to be stars.

  10. I can’t believe it is already 8 years since it went back to Foxtel. I used to watch sporadically on 72 and just started watching regularly during lockdown, whilst there was less soaps on air. While I find the show annoying in some parts, with NZs extreme left wing attitude and their regular use of swear words and throwing up, I did get addicted with their cliff-hangers. I was tryingt to wean myself off, but Foxtel did it for me 🙂 In a way, it was good that they finished up on this episode. We got to know Phoenixe’s sad fate and the long running Creep storyline had concluded.

  11. This is super disappointing… i remember as a kid being heartbroken when Foxtel dumped Shortland Street from UKTV around the mid to late 90s completely out nowhere. Here I was at 12 years old trying to call them and write asking why but nobody replied of course. I understand business decisions and the ratings aren’t spectacular but firstly it is in HD when shorty isn’t available anywhere else in HD and secondly it is super difficult to catch this show outside of NZ so hopefully someone comes to the rescue… it was very hard jumping from episodes in the year 2000 to a serial killer in 2008 before Wikipedia helped fill the gaps, don’t want to have to go through that again!

    Ps our soaps could learn alot from the plotting on Shorty. Excellent cliffhangers, storylines that deliver short term and long term with pay-offs for holding in there and it is never afraid to take the big risks.

  14. A 6pm lead in to Neighbours could work.

    Then a 7pm repeat on Shake, followed by an encore after the project encore at 11:30pm with a weekend omnibus on Bold.
    My first suggestion is genuine.

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