Neighbours on Network BBC, ITV or FIVE?

[simmins]

After the boardroom upheaval of the past 12 months, there may not be much time for sentiment at ITV's hard-pressed management right now. But executive chairman Michael Grade could be forgiven for allowing himself a moment of nostalgic reflection as he ponders his channel's bid for Neighbours

It was the Australian soap opera, after all, on which Grade built his reputation as a popular and populist channel controller at BBC1 20 years ago. For this, he was indebted to his 15-year-old daughter who had told him about the popularity of the soap, which she and friends had chanced on during the school holidays. Grade responded by adding a 5.30pm repeat to the existing lunchtime transmission. Viewing figures of 15 million soon confirmed that there was a demand for the show beyond bored housewives. By the end of the decade, Neighbours had displaced Dallas and Dynasty as the key soap in BBC1's schedule.

Grade could never have imagined back then that the programme's producer, Fremantle Media, would one day be asking for £75,000 per episode. Nor could the current BBC management who, under the existing deal, are believed to be paying £25,000. Yet, with that contract expiring later in the year, Fremantle is believed to be holding out for nearly three times as much - or even as much as £100,000, by some accounts.

'If a deal is not reached in the very, very near future, we will withdraw the money and move it elsewhere,' said the Beeb's director of acquisitions, George McGhee, recently. Although ITV and Five, which a few years ago pulled off its own coup by snatching another Australian soap, Home and Away, from ITV, have refused to confirm their entry into the bidding war, they have almost certainly tabled bids closer to the asking price. There are reports this weekend that the BBC is poised to walk away, opening the door to a successful ITV bid.

This interest from commercial television is not, however, welcomed by fans. Nearly 9,000 people have signed an online petition calling on Fremantle to retain the BBC. 'The BBC are doing a great job,' the petition says. 'ITV may offer you more pounds but it will be at the cost of viewers. You will not get seven million viewers if the show goes to ITV.' Actually, that figure for the BBC is probably inflated. The lunchtime and teatime airings each have an average audience of at best three million. Still, it seems possible that there would be significant churn should ITV or Five assume the rights. This is unlikely to provoke questions in Parliament but it is still worth considering the soap's significant impact.

It is easy to forget how limited daytime television, particularly on the BBC, was when Neighbours first aired in the mid-Eighties. With the Open University, schools programming and party political conferences dominating, there was little that could be called entertainment. The show's unexpected popularity had management on the hunt for similar, light programming around which to build a proper schedule.

More important for the BBC, the 5.30pm repeat occupied a problem window between the traditional late afternoon children's strand and the early evening news bulletins. Grade discovered a programme that appealed not only to children, but to teenagers, students and anyone stepping in from work. A knock-on effect of the popularity of Neighbours has been the re-casting of British soap operas, which were given more teenage characters and related plotlines.

It is the prospect of drawing in this younger audience which has no doubt attracted Five and ITV. With no intention of commissioning any productions of its own, ITV could relaunch its afternoon slot with the goings-on in Ramsay Street while delivering a morale-boosting coup. There is also talk of running previews on ITV2, which could be positioned as a mass-market rival to E4.

For Grade, beating Five and the BBC to the soap would be a signal to investors that he is delivering.

Check out this petition (also please sign!):
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...n-the-bbc.html

Source: Neighboursfans.com

[Mythor]

Why the hell would Fremantle care how many people view it in the UK? So long as ITV/whoever keep paying for the episodes, they're not going to give a rat's ass.

And Neighbours is shit anyway. I hope they cancel it altogether.