It’s just Australia or England. Everyone needs good Neighbours, even the United States. Our much beloved long-running soap opera about an unassuming cul de sac that sure as shit has seen more than its fair share of troubles over the years, is launching another attempt at making the leap across the ditch the the grand old U-S-of-A.
Dr Karl, Susan, Toadie, and the rest of the Ramsay Street crew will be hitting US screens through online streaming giant Hulu Plus under a new deal struck between Hulu and Neighbours’ production studio FremantleMedia. A new episode will be available to stream daily under the deal, though Hulu audiences will be four weeks behind Australian screens.
This isn’t Hulu’s first foray into soap opera. The company already screens British series Coronation Street, and for a time aired US soaps All My Children and One Life To Live until both series were cancelled by their parent companies. At a time where streaming platforms like Hulu, or chief competitors Netflix and Amazon are gaining a rapidly expanding consumer base, more effort is being made to widen their product catalogues, which is being done through both commissioning original exclusive content such as Orange is the New Black or House of Cards, or by acquiring series internationally. Advantage, Neighbours.
The announcement serves as good news for expats living in Yankeeland, starved of their daily doses of ‘Strayan stories. And it also makes a handy catch-up service of sorts for people living in Australia with VPNs if they ever fall behind.
This will be Neighbours fourth attempt at cracking the US market, having first attempted to make the leap way back in 1991.
via SMH.
