UK Transmission Break in 2000/2001

[Martin2013]

Something I'm rather curious about, I'm aware that ITV had an 'exclusivity clause' stating that no other broadcaster could show the series for 12 months after they stopped, hence the series going off air in the UK after 8th June 2000 but Channel 5 didn't begin broadcasting until 14th July 2001.

Has it ever been explained why Five had to wait until July 2001 rather than June 2001 to start showing the series?  Did ITV take it off earlier than planned (so June rather than July) or did they have the rights to more episodes after Episode 2840 but choose not to show them?

[Dan F]

Yes, I believe ITV cut the episodes off early. The batch that they had the rights to went up to Episode 2875, which was the ep that Peta and Edward left.

So C5 would have had to negotiate a separate deal for those six weeks of episodes if they wanted to ensure UK viewers didn't miss out. A deliberate move from ITV? More than likely.

Though even if ITV had aired it Mon-Fri from May onwards, then 2875 would have aired on Thursday 20th July 2000, so I guess the exclusivity contract came down to a fixed date in July (as was cited in reports at the time) rather than the eventual TX date of that final ep.