What if... ITV kept the show?

[CaptainHulk]

I hate the way ITV moved Emmerdale out of its traditional slot just to accommodate more news (which is generally the same repeated with little advancement)

It's a bugger having to tape (Record, most of us still say tape it despite not using actual tapes) it while I watch EE (Mon-Wed) and vice versa on Thursdays.

[James Martin]

The argument from the BBC is that the iPlayer audience is more important, I think.  If I'm not mistaken, the BBC usually drop episodes at 6am on the day of transmission, although they hold them back for key episodes.

I'm genuinely interested as to whether or not a streaming-only soap has legs.  Network Ten are still going to broadcast Neighbours linearly, Amazon are simply plugging the financial hole left by Channel 5 in the UK.

I just think it's a big risk.  It might pay off; the old Top Gear trio were able to port their show over pretty much wholesale (albeit with a few tweaks) but I question whether or not a nightly show on streaming is going to work, when the medium is more designed for series of 6-8 one hour episodes people binge over 2 or 3 nights.

[Homeandawayfan.]

I know Neighbours and H&A had some kind of rivalry but I think in the UK they always lead their own separate lives on BBC and ITV. Both shows have always been unique from one another pretty much anyway, 2 totally different beasts.

 

 

[CaptainHulk]

22 minutes ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

I know Neighbours and H&A had some kind of rivalry but I think in the UK they always lead their own separate lives on BBC and ITV. Both shows have always been unique from one another pretty much anyway, 2 totally different beasts.

 

 

And there's a mutual respect between the casts, some of them have actual friendships due to working in this incestuous industry together at various points, and "crossing the divide" so to speak.

[cymbaline]

Acting is one of those professions where it isn't clever to badmouth anybody you're working for or with. You never know who you could find yourself working alongside in the future, or where you'll end up. 

On 05/08/2023 at 16:11, James Martin said:

The argument from the BBC is that the iPlayer audience is more important, I think.  If I'm not mistaken, the BBC usually drop episodes at 6am on the day of transmission, although they hold them back for key episodes.

I'm genuinely interested as to whether or not a streaming-only soap has legs.  Network Ten are still going to broadcast Neighbours linearly, Amazon are simply plugging the financial hole left by Channel 5 in the UK.

I just think it's a big risk.  It might pay off; the old Top Gear trio were able to port their show over pretty much wholesale (albeit with a few tweaks) but I question whether or not a nightly show on streaming is going to work, when the medium is more designed for series of 6-8 one hour episodes people binge over 2 or 3 nights.

This fascinates me too. I never really watched Neighbours but I know people who used to watch it on Channel 5. It was part of their early evening routine - they'd turn on the telly and watch it while they had something to eat or whatever. Whether they'll come back and watch it on Amazon is another story. I know quite a few (older) people who have a mental block about watching catch-up TV on anything. Their smart TVs, their phones, their tablets... It isn't that they're not capable of it. It's something they perceive to be a hassle. If they miss it when it's broadcast on live TV, that's it. 

[James Martin]

On 07/08/2023 at 16:55, cymbaline said:

I never really watched Neighbours but I know people who used to watch it on Channel 5. It was part of their early evening routine - they'd turn on the telly and watch it while they had something to eat or whatever. Whether they'll come back and watch it on Amazon is another story. I know quite a few (older) people who have a mental block about watching catch-up TV on anything. Their smart TVs, their phones, their tablets... It isn't that they're not capable of it. It's something they perceive to be a hassle. If they miss it when it's broadcast on live TV, that's it. 

I get this.  I'm kinda the same having grown up on VHS decks and even, briefly, owned a DVD Recorder before I acquired a PVR.

I know when we first moved from Sky to Virgin in 2007 on the main TV, my Mum still recorded programmes on the PVR, mainly Corrie, rather than use the catch-up services which in the 2000's were fully integrated, including playback, into the Virgin software itself rather than having to use individual broadcasters' ecosystems to actually play the programme as we do now.  So it was actually simpler to use catch-up TV, at least on on Virgin, back then than it is today.  So I get the generational thing.

[Homeandawayfan.]

H&A did make Neighbours look a bit twee. 1988 H&A vs 1988 Neighbours - 1988 H&A had a much more fun vibe.

Random fact, on 18 Feb 1988 H&A broadcast episode 24 (but if you count the pilot it was technically Episode 25) and Emmerdale had its 1224th episode on 18 Feb 1988. So Emmerdale was 1200 episodes ahead of H&A (Or 1199 technically due to the H&A pilot), well Emmerdale was a fair bit older, 15 years and 3 months.

[James Martin]

But Emmerdale only put out two episodes a week at that time, of course.  There was also seasonal breaks until the mid eighties.

Crossroads was on air until April 1988 and even then was ITV's second soap.  Emmerdale didn't really become the second soap until the plane crash.

[CaptainHulk]

^ The plans were in place over a period of time.  1978; move to evening in most regions, 1985; All-Year round, 1988: The Southern Push v1, 1989: Name change, Tates 1992; Theme song change, 1993; Southern Push 2, introducing The Windsors and MacAllisters, having Zoe come out and of course the £1m plane crash.

 

[Homeandawayfan.]

19 hours ago, James Martin said:

But Emmerdale only put out two episodes a week at that time, of course.  There was also seasonal breaks until the mid eighties.

Crossroads was on air until April 1988 and even then was ITV's second soap.  Emmerdale didn't really become the second soap until the plane crash.

Bit of a strawman reply to my post. Where did I mention the amount of weekly episodes of both soaps in 1988? I did not make any mention at all.