Following the cancellation of another Australian serial Neighbours, the Australian network behind Home and Away has spoken out about the future of the “expensive” show.
This follows reports that Fremantle Media was unable to find a new home for the long-running show, which launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Margot Robbie, and Jason Donovan, among others.
After an “extensive search for alternative funding,” show executives are anticipated to reveal that they have been unable to acquire another channel to broadcast the Australian soap.
Meanwhile, the Australian network has actively promoted fellow Down Under show Home and Away.
Brook Hall, Channel 7’s head of content scheduling, has expressed the network’s continued commitment to the Summer Bay soap, despite the fact that the Summer Bay serial bears a hefty financial burden.
“I know it’s not a romantic thing to say, but Home and Away is the flagship drama that we broadcast pretty much all year,” he told TV Tonight.
“It’s a high-priced, high-quality drama.” It airs throughout primetime on our main channel. It’s not something we utilize to score drama points on the multi. It’s our most expensive content investment. And all of that is lost.
“No other network would put such a high price tag on a show.” It’s our year’s largest production.”
“I’m quite proud of Home and Away,” he continued, “and it’s arguably our most important show and our biggest financial investment.” We are not obligated to do so. We have faith in it.
“It’s a drama quota, so we don’t do it.” We do it because it’s an incredibly popular show.”
Home and Away is shown on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and unlike Neighbours, the show has a life-of-series deal, meaning the channel will continue to run episodes as long as Australia produces them.
After Channel 5 chose to cancel the show after nearly four decades on our screens, supporters created a petition in the hope that it would be picked up by another network.
“Neighbours will no longer air on Channel 5 after this summer,” a Channel 5 representative said in a statement. We’d like to congratulate the cast, Fremantle, and the entire production crew for their amazing work on this landmark series, which has been a much-loved part of our schedule for more than a decade.
“We’d also of course like to thank the fans for their loyal support of Neighbours across the years.”
They added: “We recognize that there will be disappointed about this decision, however, our current focus is on increasing our investment in original UK drama, which has strong appeal for our viewers.”
