Five Takes Neighbours From BBC One For £300m

Five has snapped up the rights to long-running soap Neighbours, after the BBC decided not to pay the programme’s distributor, FremantleMedia, £300 million for the eight-year deal.

The Aussie institution, which spawned the careers of the likes of Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce, has been with the corporation for more than 20 years, but will from 2008 be aired on Five and digital offering Five Life.

The acquisition is a boon for the channel, whose main hit shows include US imports CSI and House.

Lisa Opie, Five’s managing editor of content, said: “I’m delighted Five has secured such a popular and sought after series. Neighbours is quite rightly much loved by its many fans and it will be a greatly prized part of our schedule and suitably cherished by us.”

Jane Lighting, Five’s CEO, added: “Neighbours is a fantastic asset for us to add to Five’s family of channels, particularly as it is a household brand which delivers strong audiences daily.”

ITV was also involved in bidding for the sought after show.

Earlier today, the BBC said in a statement: “We have this afternoon formally withdrawn from the bidding for Neighbours.

“The BBC has had a long and fruitful relationship with Neighbours, which has transmitted on BBC One for 21 years, and this has come to an end because of an unrealistic price demand.

“We do not believe that we could have justified to BBC viewers a price tag of what would have amounted to some £300 million across the term of the contract. Paying that sum would also have compromised our ability to invest in new original programmes. We made a fair offer and are sad that we have not been able to reach terms with Fremantle.”

Neighbours is currently shown twice a day on BBC One and is the most popular show on terrestrial daytime television, other than the BBC One lunchtime news.

Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk