Neighbours is ending again!

[James Martin]

  On 21/02/2025 at 12:39, pembie said:

With how slow home and away is these days I find it is these days I’m surprised that’s not in trouble to be honest 

But streaming services have way too much choice on them movies tv shows unless they get hyped up lots of things get axed these days Having a soap on there probably isn’t going to work really 

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Home & Away's production model is vastly different to Neighbours'.  Firstly, the lifetime deal with Channel 5 means they have a guaranteed international partner.  Ben Frow would get rid of it if he could, no doubt about that.  He's stuck with it, forever and ever.

Secondly, they're not as reliant on the British market; that said Home & Away does remain a big deal in Ireland where Neighbours MK2 still gets a linear broadcast.

And thirdly, it still does the numbers in Australia.

I don't think streaming works for open ended soaps.  Normally a streaming show is a season of 8-10-12 episodes.  A soap just keeps on going, and it becomes very easy to simply fall behind.  I'm trying to keep up with the rerun of Eldorado and it's impossible; I'm already ten episodes behind U&Drama.

Also, it ended up behind a paywall.  I don't mind paying to see The Grand Tour or Clarkson's Farm but who's going to subscribe to watch a daytime soap opera that had become deeply unfashionable?

The fact ITV didn't step in to rescue it last time (when they bid against Channel 5 in 2007 when the BBC first dropped it) tells you all you need to know.

It's had a good run.  Let it rest.

[Homeandawayfan.]

It has always been a decades old debate. Which do you prefer, H&A or Neighbours? I can remember when the 2 soaps were big in the UK in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. Even the teachers at school used to say "Did you watch Neighbours and H&A last night" to certain pupils inbetween lessons, ones they knew watched the shows.

 

[Summerbaymagick]

Honestly I’m not surprised by it being cancelled again. I was shocked C5 kept funnelling so much money into it for so long and I was even more shocked Amazon even picked it up in the first place and then thought for sure it wouldn’t last long. A streaming service just doesn’t work for soaps. Which sucks for the fans because it gave them false hope.

 

However, I do have to say I’ve always preferred H&A massively. I gave up on Neighbours around 2009-10 and even before that I was viewing sporadically. Any time I caught some of it past that date it looked in a bad state and with some poor acting.
 

H&A has always been more engaging, with better quality actors and I haven’t stopped watching since 2000. It’s a relief that by comparison it’s financially a stable and self sufficient show. 

[CaptainHulk]

I'm More disappointed than angry this this time. As I said before at least I still have a use for Amazon unlike Channel 5 (shopping)

At least it gets to live a little longer instead of everything being rushed like last time. 

It's really too bad because it's been making most of the other soaps look like well... S*** for the last year (except EE) or so.

[James Martin]

Really weird seeing the fans begging for ITV to take it on, given ITV's awful treatment of Home & Away through the 90's.

[CaptainHulk]

  On 22/02/2025 at 22:02, James Martin said:

Really weird seeing the fans begging for ITV to take it on, given ITV's awful treatment of Home & Away through the 90's.

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They lost a bidding war in 2007 and flat out rejected it in 2022, so I'm not holding out hope. They'd would rather bother with gameshows and news.

 

[Homeandawayfan.]

Neighbours will probably end at Christmas 2025. Thus, H&A will surpass the overall duration of Neighbours in October 2028.