Hollyoaks in groundbreaking YouTube deal
Long running soap to screen for free on YouTube a week after broadcast in the UK.
- Published by David Knox
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Long running UK soap Hollyoaks is set to stream on YouTube globally.
The news follows the successful launch of full episodes on YouTube in the UK last year, part of Channel 4’s stream-first model. It is reported that full-length episodes on YouTube in the UK and Ireland alone saw 5.8 million minutes of watch time in Q1 of 2024, with 67 percent of views coming from 13-34 year olds.
Initially, 20 episodes will be available for global viewers to stream, after which the channel will have the same daily drop pattern as its UK channel.
Daily episodes will be available on YouTube one week after their debut on Channel 4 streaming platforms.
Hollyoaks has been on air since 1995 and has maintained its popularity over the years.
“Hollyoaks is always synonymous with digital-firsts, and I am delighted that the show’s global audience will now be able to find and watch episodes when they want on YouTube,” said Kate Little, joint managing director of Lime Pictures. “With a proven track record of enticing younger viewers with gripping storytelling and engaging characters, this digitally-led offering of episodes will allow new and existing audiences worldwide to get their Hollyoaks fix with ease.”
Source: WorldScreen
- Tagged with Hollyoaks
7 Responses
E4 is still channel 4 …. so it is all the same company and Channel. Hollyoaks was still screen on a omnibus on c4 on the weekends.
Minutes of airtime is such a useless stat. Considering each episode is 23 minutes you can cut down 5.8m minutes to 252174 episodes being watched – still sounds quite impressive. And with 65 new episodes over each quarter that’s 3879 viewers per episode. Not so impressive, but also not to be dismissed either.
Some networks have gained a supplementary income from monetised programming and content on YouTube.
Yes. ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ is an example, all seasons are on YouTube and available worldwide.
What this is that Channel 4 started premiering Hollyoaks episodes on streaming first, then dropped it from Channel 4 entirely. They they have been using YouTube as cheap distribution platform to reach younger viewers in the UK. Lacking the overseas sales of the bigger UK soaps they are trying to see if global distribution on YouTube is viable. I’ll watch a few episodes.
Channel 4 never dropped Hollyoaks. They were only cutting the episodes down to 3 episodes a week instead of 5. There has been many cuts of Channel 4. Actually when they made changes to Hollyoaks they found a majority of the viewers were actually watching in through the Channel 4 app online.
C4 dropped it from the main channel last year but it still airs on E4. I get the impression it’s easier to monetise it via streaming.