Channel 5 Transmission Discussion/Updates

[James Martin]

Incidentally, 5 have announced their new lineup today:

9:15am - 11:30am: Jeremy Vine
11:30am - 12:45pm: Storm & Alexis
12:50pm - 2:00pm: Matt Allwright
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Vanessa

So they've basically axed Home & Away for more debate shows.

 

 

[Homeandawayfan.]

So all Australian soaps seem to have been booted from Channel 5 in the past few years. At least H&A is surviving elsewhere.

Edited December 11, 2025 by Homeandawayfan.

[Light of the Bay]

I do think channel 5 have little interest in the show nowadays - far cry from the pretty cool ads they used to have in the mid noughties sort of time? I seem to remember a giant Leah on the beach? I’m really vague about it but remember something like that. They really put Home and Away front and centre back then. Different world these days.

 

Does anyone remember around 2013 and they randomly started airing year 2000 repeats? I think they had these running for a few weeks and then they stopped. Never ever came back. 

[Bri1231]

I would say if that lifetime deal wasn't in place they would have dropped it by now. I just don't think they want it anymore. Who would take over if that was the case I wonder? Let's hope we never have to worry about that 

3 hours ago, Light of the Bay said:

I do think channel 5 have little interest in the show nowadays - far cry from the pretty cool ads they used to have in the mid noughties sort of time? I seem to remember a giant Leah on the beach? I’m really vague about it but remember something like that. They really put Home and Away front and centre back then. Different world these days.

 

Does anyone remember around 2013 and they randomly started airing year 2000 repeats? I think they had these running for a few weeks and then they stopped. Never ever came back. 

I remember billboards across Birmingham in the early to mid 2000s. Home and Away Channel 5 with the times etc. Times have changed 

[630si]

On 08/12/2025 at 20:10, c120701 said:

 

I think whilst it's true times have changed, the 2000's channel 5 was wildly different, full of imported shows and daytime TV wasn't the big baron land that it is now. 

We need to remember that channel 5 Is chasing what little ad revenue there probably is in daytime with trying to keep the live viewer. Good luck to them I say looking at that line up. I'm sure Vanessa is rating awful as is. So they're gambling. I personally don't think it will work but let's see. 

The majority of Home and away viewers now are not watching it at 1:45pm. (this is actually the repeat showing nowadays,) most of the ratings for the show are made up of time shift or vosdal. And if they can get better ad revenue from that, go for it I say. I think a lot of noise is from folk that if they really thought about it, probably don't sit down with a cuppa at 1:45 all that often. 

Now, 5star first Look showings are doing about 5% audience share and somewhere between 300-400k generally. This move might even strengthen that a bit. Although I do think the Facebook clan will be asking where the show is well into February. 

What I would like to see now is everything made a bit easier. 

On the 5 app, on 2nd January, I want the episode to be labelled as such. Not labelled Monday 5th. As that won't be airing on 5. Trying to explain that to someone this past year and their eyes have glazed over ha been a experience. 

 

There is an arguement about visibility of the show on a main channel etc which I accept. But less and less of us watch linear nowadays and the TV landscape is just madly changing infront of us. Even the streamers are swallowing each other up now. These legacy soaps need to adapt and work through it. Corrie is on YouTube! I would argue being on the stream app gives it more visibility than buried in the afternoon on a live channel nobody is watching. Everytime I open the 5 app Home and Away is there under most popular shows. 

 

 

[James Martin]

The lifetime deal was done at a time when soaps still did the numbers, and it absolutely dominated the Channel 5 Top 10 when the switch first took place, indeed it was always in ITV's Top 30 until it came off.  In 1999 ITV took the lunchtime showing off for a week to make way for snooker, but the teatime audience absolutely rocketed very close to the average "combined" figure, with Broadcast magazine describing it as "a reflection of true viewer loyalty." At the time it was a huge coup for Channel 5 and even gave Family Affairs a slight boost.  Obviously, times change and Ben Frow is on record saying that if his legacy is "the man who axed Big Brother and Neighbours" then he wouldn't be sorry.  That's the reality of the Channel 5 of today, which was infamously much more down-market in 2001.  Trains and animals, both preferably in Yorkshire, are where it's at now.

The debate shows will cost absolute chickenfeed to make, and are probably more appealing to the advertisers.  If they get over 70k, its job done.  Plus, I doubt the show gets much of an elderly audience at lunchtime anymore.

There's also the fact that a streaming viewer is worth so much more to an advertiser than a linear one because the commercial breaks can be hyper-targeted to the device playing the show.  It opens up the option for local advertising in a way the linear feeds can't do.

The Big 3 do very well out of their early iPlayer/ITVX drops & I'm sure Hollyoaks is pretty similar.  So I'm not too bothered, but I would have probably kept it at 6:30pm on the main channel as a shop window.  I was recording at 1:45pm and playing it back at teatime, but now streaming is HD I don't even do that.

I agree it needs to be simplified now.  Drop the First Look and come back on Monday 5th with 8601 dropped at 6am on streaming, then air it linearly at 6:30pm on 5 Star, rather than come back on Friday 2nd but label it Monday 5th.  I took often get asked "why is it a day ahead?"  First Look makes no sense when the network are literally PRing the move as "streaming first" - it's not a first look when it's been accessible for 12½ hours.

As for "if they could get out of the deal" I think ITV would like it back.  I imagine had there been no switch it would have shifted to ITV2 over time but would have done impressive numbers for ITVX. 

Certainly an ITVX viewer is now worth more to the advertising industry than a linear one is; you only have to look at how many viewers Love Island and Big Brother add on when consolidated ratings come in.  They've also got so much more data, such as exactly how many people request a title, how much they watch, if they skip bits or pause it, as well as the demographics of the accounts that stream it; data you can't really clean via linear.  The reality is that in today's market the advertisers crave that sort of data in order to get their money's worth.

Added to this is the news that Sky have quietly withdrawn offering Sky Q (with a hard disk recorder) to new customers online (but you can still ring up for it, for now) and are only selling Sky Glass and Sky Stream which have no hard drives so if you miss a show linearly, you have to go via the broadcaster's app and stream.  (Incidentally, Sky's dishless platforms are the only ones to carry 5 Star in HD.)

I imagine Virgin will, in time, follow suit and both providers will switch to an all-IP solution and we too will have to part with our hard drives (see also how landlines now have to go through your router if you still have one.)

So I don't think it's completely bad news for the Bay.  Let's also not forget that Netflix's Adolescence became the first streaming only title to go to Number 1 in the overall weekly Top 30 earlier this year. Titles like Stranger Things or Clarkson's Farm are still part of the national conversation but are only available online.

 I'd like to know what the numbers are online vs. 5 Star, though.

[CaptainHulk]

On 09/12/2025 at 17:37, James Martin said:

Incidentally, 5 have announced their new lineup today:

9:15am - 11:30am: Jeremy Vine
11:30am - 12:45pm: Storm & Alexis
12:50pm - 2:00pm: Matt Allwright
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Vanessa

So they've basically axed Home & Away for more debate shows.

 

 

Guess this'll encourage more people to go to *work* if anything!

4 hours ago, James Martin said:

The lifetime deal was done at a time when soaps still did the numbers, and it absolutely dominated the Channel 5 Top 10 when the switch first took place, indeed it was always in ITV's Top 30 until it came off.  In 1999 ITV took the lunchtime showing off for a week to make way for snooker, but the teatime audience absolutely rocketed very close to the average "combined" figure, with Broadcast magazine describing it as "a reflection of true viewer loyalty." At the time it was a huge coup for Channel 5 and even gave Family Affairs a slight boost.  Obviously, times change and Ben Frow is on record saying that if his legacy is "the man who axed Big Brother and Neighbours" then he wouldn't be sorry.  

Let's just say Mr Frow ain't getting in my fallout shelter in the event of a Nuclear Outbreak (Yes, I'm a petty wee bugger when provoked )

[James Martin]

Am I right in saying that the programme was initially only shown in the evening when ITV first aired it in 1989, with the lunchtime showing introduced later, initially as part of CITV Summer Mornings?

[630si]

45 minutes ago, James Martin said:

Am I right in saying that the programme was initially only shown in the evening when ITV first aired it in 1989, with the lunchtime showing introduced later, initially as part of CITV Summer Mornings?

I don't know. But I imagine that could've varied depending on the ITV region you were in?

[Red Ranger 1]

17 hours ago, James Martin said:

(see also how landlines now have to go through your router if you still have one.)

Mine doesn't, although I suspect I'm a bit of a holdout. My parents were forced to switch over a while back.