Report: Neighbours deal could span hundreds of new episodes
Unconfirmed report suggests two year deal of 200 episodes each for returning soap.
- Published by David Knox
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The volume of new Neighbours episodes is yet to be revealed since the bombshell announce that the soap is returning.
Executive Producer Jason Herbison has referred to “a lot of new episodes” while actor Ryan Moloney told TV Tonight he was returning to full time work with the show.
Now UK site Digital Spy is suggesting a two year deal of 200 episodes each -this would amount to 5 episodes a week across the 40 week survey year, should it pan out as such…. but it could be stretched longer at 4 eps a week.
In Australia Network 10 retains first run rights with Prime Video a week later.
Unattributed sources told the publication, “The plan is for Neighbours to keep its format as a high-volume daily soap opera, so it’ll still be the show that fans know and love.
“Plans are being made for two new seasons, which will run for 200 episodes each. It’s an incredible result for fans, who thought they’d seen the last of the show when the finale aired in July.
“The logic for Freevee is that daily episode drops will keep fans checking back on the streaming service and engage with other content available.”
A spokesperson for Freevee declined to comment telling Digital Spy: “Amazon Freevee and Fremantle are in the early stages of planning the next chapter of the show.”
A spokesperson for Fremantle also declined to comment.
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12 Responses
I think this is a desperate act ,they all came back well a few and said goodbye and now they’ve dragged it out again ,this will never be what it was in its day and that day has passed so long ago.
That’s the beauty of having so many sources for TV entertainment these days – if you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it. If it’s a desperate act to keep a significant show (in terms of output) that the industry hugely benefits from afloat a little longer, then I’m all for it.
I’m curious if storylines will retain a PG classification. Presumably, 10 will air in a PG timeslot meaning they would edit it down should it exceed.
10peach actually showed a lot in the last 3 ye aw aars that the UK edited with the use of the word B*”””””d and showing weapons/violence in action. So it’s more the UK will likely not have to worry about getting episodes chopped.
10 is still the commissioner of the Show, that gives them some clout in negotiations. Amazon isn’t expecting Neighbours to be a driver of Amazon Prime subscriptions in Australia or NZ, they are putting it up there because they can. They want it to get people signed up to Amazon in the UK, where Neighbours is highly popular, and the US which is a large market. Then they can promote Amazon’s goods and Prime memberships to them. The point of a Soap is economies of scale, there is no point in make a few episodes of them, like the ABC tried to do with The Heights.
“In Australia Network 10 retains first run rights with Prime Video a week later.”
Wow! What an incentive to subscribe to Prime Video when you can get the same thing free, earlier.
It’s Gogglebox in reverse!
It would be even more comical if it’s also available on 10Play (though Amazon would probably hold the rights to the classic eps).
The new series deal for Amazon is more about attracting more viewers/subscribers in UK, US and Canada…its probably more the backlog drop of past episodes that could attract Australian viewers to Prime Video.
Some people may be prepared to wait the week to avoid ads and watch the show in 22 minutes a day.
Personally I FF through the ads of any FTA shows and I relish just no ads on paid platforms.
Yeah I waited to watch it on P+ without the ads so would prob do the same on Amazon. I usually binge a few at a time also not something fun to do on 10play.
Well in the US and UK it’s going up on Amazon Freevee which is ad-supported, so it’ll be all about getting eyeballs on that and cross promote what is on Amazon Prime. Though in Canada it’s direct to Prime Video, I suspect here on 10 and TVNZ in New Zealand (from what I can gather) it will come with a whole heap of adverts for Amazon Prime as well.
Other than in Australia, has there been any confirmation of Neighbours airing on other terrestrial linear TV like TVNZ in New Zealand or RTE in Ireland? I would assume all previous international screening agreements ceased with the once finale aired in July? No mention from Amazon/Fremantle about screening in territories other than AU, NZ, UK, US and CA.