Oh dear. Perhaps Five may have been a little too hasty in emptying its piggy bank of a rumoured £300 million in hard cash to secure the rights to Neighbours over eight years, starting in 2008.
It seems Neighbours on its native soil has taken an alarming tumble in the ratings, dropping as low as 700,000. Neighbours has traditionally lost out to rival soap Home and Away on native territory. Home and Away, which is also shown in the UK on Five, regularly rates upwards of a million viewers, and the gap between the two shows has become more pronounced in recent years in Australia.
Dan Bennett, drama executive for Channel Ten in Australia told the press recently that:
“Certainly, the figures we’re getting now aren’t a great basis for our nighttime schedule.”
Ouch!
Suddenly Neighbours doesn’t look such a good bet, casting into doubt whether the show will actually be around for another eight years. I’m sure Five wouldn’t end up out of pocket if Neighbours were to close its doors for the final time before the current deal is up, but it would leave a liberal smearing of egg on face.
And then the winners become the BBC who would look like a sensible broadcaster with a far-reaching vision to dump a show with an uncertain future from its schedules.
As for Auntie’s strategy on the Neighbours front, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if plans are already afoot to dump the evening repeat slot as soon as possible. The sooner the schedules can be adjusted ahead of the handover, the better really. Although quite what would go in there is anybody’s guess. But somewhere down the line, it might just be on the cards for Doctors to get a little bit more cash thrown at it in the hope of retaining the Neighbours loyalists. Who knows, an evening repeat might not be totally out of the question.
Watch this space.
