It’s that time of the year again, as Home and Away goes off air on Channel 5 and fans have to cope without their slice of Summer Bay action.
From Friday, November 23, Home and Away is taking a break from UK screens and won’t be back until January 2019. Yep, that’s over a month without the trials and tribulations of Alf, Irene and all of the other Summer Bay favourites – sob!
But with rival Aussie soap Neighbours never off our screens these days, just why does Home and Away have to disappear? Here’s everything you need to know.
The maths
Neighbours now airs 52 weeks of the year thanks to a new deal with Channel 5, but it’s a very different story for Home and Away. In its home country of Australia, Home and Away traditionally airs 230 episodes per year on the Seven Network. This only translates to 46 weeks’ worth of Summer Bay drama, if the show airs in its traditional five-episodes-per-week scheduling pattern.
This means that there’s simply not enough episodes for Channel 5 to air Home and Away all the time, forcing them to take the show off air for around six weeks per year. The current policy is to do this in the build-up to Christmas, when Channel 5 can fill the scheduling gaps with festive films. Plus, at least it gives us more time for Christmas shopping.
The difference to Neighbours
So, why can’t Home and Away just have more episodes per year? It’s a good question, but the main difference is that Channel 5 has less of a say over the show than it does with Neighbours.
In 2017, Neighbours landed a new multi-year deal with Channel 5, keeping it on our screens for the foreseeable future. As Neighbours only plays out on a small digital channel in Australia these days, the UK broadcast deal is crucial to its long-term success and Channel 5 is effectively keeping the show going with its financial backing. This has allowed Channel 5 to make certain requests, including more episodes per year and occasional late-night specials.
While Channel 5 also pumps money into Home and Away and works with the show on certain storylines, its deal doesn’t allow quite the same levels of control. This is partly because Home and Away is still a big success in its own right in Australia and isn’t as dependent on the UK deal.
Aussie station Network Seven doesn’t need Home and Away on air 52 weeks per year, as it doesn’t broadcast its biggest shows during the hot summer months (our winter).
The other main difference is that Home and Away has a lifetime deal in place with Channel 5, while Neighbours‘ UK contract is renegotiated every few years – always handy if a few extra demands need to be thrown in.
The transmission gap
Viewers may also wonder why Channel 5 doesn’t take this opportunity to keep Home and Away running over Christmas and catch up with the Australian broadcasts. We’re currently a month behind the Aussie transmissions, while Neighbours fans get the better deal once again – the Ramsay Street soap now has no gap between the UK and Down Under.
Sadly, it’s unlikely that Channel 5 will choose to catch up for the foreseeable future. Home and Away‘s scheduling in Australia is often erratic – some weeks only three or four episodes will air, while others will have special double, triple or even quadruple bills when they need to catch up.
As Channel 5 naturally can’t overtake the Aussie broadcasts, it’d be difficult for the show to air in its reliable five-episodes-per-week format if it caught up with Network Seven. In fact, the transmission gap is pretty handy for Channel 5 whenever the Australian schedule gets a little bit crazy.
So even though it’s frustrating to be behind the times, at least we can say that we get a trusty format of five 30-minute episodes per week, which is how Home and Away is intended to be shown. Far better than the schedule being all over the place, right?
So how long is it off for?
Home and Away is expected to return on January 7 on Channel 5, so there’ll be a six-week break.
The show stays on air in Australia until mid-December, when the dramatic 2018 season finale episode will air for viewers Down Under.
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