H&A historic UK ratings discussion.

[CaptainHulk]

The show was getting 2.5m on average, 3m tops during its first year and that was on FIVE, a channel people DIDN'T even watch, couldn't get nor would ADMIT to watching!

It's just ratings have taken a hit as people now are

A) Watching an hour/day later

B) Watching online

C) Watching Oz Pace

D) Going straight for the brand new one on 5* quickly after (in 2006-08, it was justifiable and they boasted pretty Healthy audiences, think it grazed 900k out point)

E) So many chances to catch up on Demand

And yes, ITV were freaking butchers. Ruined Chloe v Brad: The final encounter, Justine's Smack Addiction plus countless other stories.

[James Martin]

I'd pull the 5* episode, and move the first showing back to 6pm. There's too many chances to catch it through the day and it fragments the audience First Look can rate almost as well as the 6pm showing.

The main advantage of having the show back on ITV now of course, would be that it would be available on HD on Freeview, which of course it currently isn't.

[CaptainHulk]

Also the censorship would be a bit of problem again as Summer Bay over the last decade is 20x more dangerous!

[Gerard]

It's worrying that ratings have taken a nosedive, even since it started on Channel 5. I wonder what H&A would be rating had it stayed on ITV and not been censored? The frequent censorship on ITV in later years ruined the series. The sort of big events that Channel 5 would run promos for these days were actually removed from the show to keep it kid-friendly. Then of course ITV reduced the show to one episode a day, and it was forced off air for a year. It's pretty amazing it got so many viewers on Channel 5 - and they did promote it with billboards etc. If ITV were still in charge we'd probably get 3 or 4 episodes a week, given the amount of unsuitable content they would have to remove!

There are so many showings of each episode, and On Demand, so I've no idea what the combined total viewers would be for one episode, but the published ratings are often struggling to get above 1 milliion for the two main Channel 5 showings. It has a lead-in from Neighbours at 6pm, and as it is actually rating lower, you could draw the conclusion that 1000s of viewers are actually switching away to not watch H&A.

[James Martin]

That's what I mean. Home & Away used to comfortably out-rate Neighbours, so you would think with both on the same channel, and Home & Away with the later timeslot, Home & Away would rate victoriously. I also don't get the whole "it's on Channel 5" thing. Channel 4 moved Hollyoaks over to E4 during the Paralympics for example, people still sought it out.

[ter06]

Every TV show rated higher then. H&A was massive - Melissa George won a National Television Award - a H&A actor woukd never be nominated now!! In 1996 the show won Best Soap at the Inside Soap Awards.

The ratings have dropped now but with all the showings, it gets around 1.5m per episode which I wouldn't call worrying, especially for Five.

H&A is an amazing success story. Apart from Neighbours, no Aussie drama has lasted that long. And H&A is still popular in Australia where Neighbours has failed. Long may it reign!

[CaptainHulk]

Neighbours is of better quality at the minute, IMO and I'm not just saying that b/c it's Anniversary Year. Had it not been for UK and Belgium, the show would have been canned a good while ago.

And H&A while occasionally good (just few and far between in 2014), seems to struggle to break a mil these days (with the factors we already discussed in place).

And ITV dropping episodes, especially on Fridays got annoying. We need that weekend cliffhanger, dammit!

I remember even late as '98 (probably early Nash, end of Pippa era), H&A was still making the cover of the Women's weeklies.

[ter06]

It still get magazine covers in Ireland.

[Homeandawayfan.]

ATM Neighbours is better quality than H&A but from 1988-2010ish, H&A was always the much better soap, evolved more and was just more exciting and vibrant. Re watching 1988 H&A it made 1988 Neighbours quite spartan and dull in comparison.

In 1994, I think H&A did beat EastEnders a few times. 1992-1996 was the most popular period for H&A back then in the UK.

[630si]

I'd pull the 5* episode, and move the first showing back to 6pm. There's too many chances to catch it through the day and it fragments the audience First Look can rate almost as well as the 6pm showing.

The main advantage of having the show back on ITV now of course, would be that it would be available on HD on Freeview, which of course it currently isn't.

This would work and boost the 6pm. However it will NEVER happen. I mentioned in an earlier post, the nearest rating show on 5* has half the audience as the first look Home and Away eps. It's propping the channel up. The issue is fragmentation. Just looking at on demand on Sky under most popular on demand 5, yesterday's ep is third most popular download and some days its first or 2nd to neighbours. And then channel5+24 fill the empty schedules up with it. At any time of the day you're never far away from a showing on one of the channels. Whether that's good or bad I don't know. Historically, we never had that, especially at the more comparable time of when it moved to Channel5. 6pm was the main showing and you only had one chance to watch it again the next day at lunch.