In December I wrote to as many digital TV channels I could find, asking whether they had thought about acquiring Neighbours from FremantleMedia for a repeat run. I've had two reponses so far so I thought I'd post them on here.

From UKTV:


From Fox Intrnational Channels:


I certainly appreciate the honesty of Toby Etheridge from FX UK but I do think if fans want to see the early years of the show as many of us should write to Digital channels as possible. The more they see the support for Neighbours being repeated, the higher the likelihood it will be. I'm going to write to Ten and Fremantle soon.

Let me know what you think...

It would be great to see some of these episodes again, but I doubt it will ever happen. Which is a shame because there are so many cable shows at the moment which show the same repeats over and over again so i don't know why they couldn't show repeats of neighbours.

Have you thought about contacting the BBC? Don't they still hold the '85-'08 rights to the show?

Imagine, early Neighbours on either BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 or BBC4...all uninterrupted. I am getting excited just thinking about it.

UKTV always say the same when it comes to repeating soaps.


I Just hope this new Sofa Stars channel launches soon. That's if its actually a real channel. At least this channel will give us Home and Away from the beginning.

I've heard quite a few uk soaps are rumoured to air:

Home and Away from the beginning
Grange Hill from the beginning (Now classed as a soap)
Eldorado
Crossroads (not sure which era)
EastEnders was mentioned.

The BBC won't show repeats of soaps. They tend to focus on showing repeats of Flog it, Weakest Link and Murder She Wrote.

EastEnders was shown for a very short period on BBC Four. But that was only because they doing a special season about the 80s. So they showed a few 1980s episodes.

Miles - I haven't contacted the BBC about repeating Neighbours but they no longer have the rights I believe. The BBC scraps anything they no longer want to air and I think Neighbours has been dumped.

Will anyone else get behind me and continue the campaign by writing to stations? Is there an address for Sofa Stars? Perhaps I will write to them if I ever find an address.

Even if they do repeat Home and Away, it seems a bit of a waste because I'm already watching the repeats from the repeat run in Australia. Neighbours is the one that desperately needs repeating. I'm afraid it will never happen. But if we at least try, then something may happen.

I think contacting a station by post is more successful than writing emails etc...

I thought once a contract was signed, that was it. Channel 5 aren't allowed to show Neighbours pre-2008 are they, because presumably the BBC still holds the rights.

I would love a BBC re-run. No ads and all that.

Failing that...more DVDs maybe.

You know I am on Perfect Blend...

The BBC still hold the rights to Neighbours 1985-2007 until 2018.

I thought they did. Until 2018! How do you know that?

Come on BBC...Neighbours repeats please!

In the original contract with Fremantle Media - the rights expire to all episodes 10 years after the the last episode shown.

How do you know that?

I doubt the BBC still have the tapes. Seeing as the public pays for the BBC I doubt they have kept the tapes, thinking they'll never repeat them again. Plus they're probably bitter that they lost the show to Five which is another reason I highly doubt they'll repeat.

Miles, shall we write to the BBC?

We need to get people sending in their letters!

Do you work for Fremantle or something? If not, how do you know such information?

I just know - and the Beeb maybe have destroyed the tapes - but they certainly request copies as they still own the rights.

Are you saying they can ask Fremantle for more tapes should they require them? Right, time to write a letter to the Beeb... LOL

Yes - Five were desperately trying to get their hands on old Neighbours episodes, but they can't - the BBC still hold the rights but its highly unlikely they'll show old eps.

How do you know that Five were trying to get old eps? Did they want to repeat the show on Five*? Couldn't they just buy the episodes straight from Fremantle if they wanted?

Not as simple as that - BBC hold the rights to broadcast Neighbours episodes 1985-2007 in the UK, They also held the 'european premiere' rights too - so no other channel in the UK can broadcast these eps until 2018, sure Five could approach the beeb, but why would they help them when they snatched Neighbours from them in the first place.

Interesting. I had no idea about that amount of detail. Fascinating.

You could very well find Channel 5 buying 1988-2000 episodes of Home and Away - It was exactly the same with ITV &Home and away, ITV's rights to 1988-2000 episodes of H&A eps expired on 15 July 2011

So writing to all these channels was a waste of time anyway then - only the BBC can repeat the show. How frickin annoying, and there's no way they'll repeat the episodes anyway!

They wouldn't, no.

Home and Away seems to be much more accessible than Neighbours in terms of repeats. First, it's being repeated by Channel 7 in Australia already, secondly it's been purchased (I suspect) by the Sofa Stars channel so will be repeated in the UK, nad Five could buy the rights too.

What's the best road to go down do you think, Hollywood 1989, in terms of getting Neighbours repeated at all? Contacting the BBC/Ten/Fremantle?

First off who is 'sofa stars channel'?

You could contact BBC, but I doubt they would do anything and as for fremantlemedia - they may own the show but the BBC own the rights in UK for those episodes for the next 6 years, so the ball is in the BBC's court.

Why not...nothing to lose!

They could put it on BBC4...to attract viewers there.