Home and Away will no longer be airing new episodes on Channel 5.
The Australian soap has been broadcasted on the channel at 1:45pm for years, but won’t return to the usual slot after Christmas.
This is because new episodes of Home and Away will begin dropping online from January 2. Each instalment will be available to stream from 6am, and then the evening double bill will follow at 6pm on 5Star.
A statement released by Channel 5 said that Home and Away will test out a new strategy that will allow fans to watch the episodes via streaming first.
The channel has said the soap is ‘moving exclusively to streaming for daytime viewing’. If you wish to watch the show during the day, you’ll have to use 5’s streaming platform.
The previous day’s episode will air on 5Star at 6pm, and then the latest ep will follow at 6:30.
‘Home and Away has been a phenomenal success for us on streaming’, Greg Barnett, Commissioning Editor at 5 said.
‘Viewers have fully embraced the flexibility of on-demand viewing, driving double-digit year-on-year growth and making streaming the preferred way to watch the show.
‘Moving daytime episodes exclusively to streaming is a natural next step, reflecting how audiences want to engage with their favourite content.’
Home and Away has been airing since 1988.
Earlier this year, the residents of Summer Bay said goodbye to iconic face Irene Roberts (Lynne McGranger).
Irene originally arrived as a villain, a violent and abusive alcoholic who had a severely damaged relationship with her children Nathan (David Dixon), Damian (Matt Doran) and Finlay (Tina Thomsen), who’d been taken from her care.
After realising that she’d hit rock bottom, she turned her life around, got sober and dedicated her life to becoming a foster parent.
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More drama followed, including dating a murderer, battling breast cancer and a relapse into drinking, though her final storyline, being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, saw her consider her future and ultimately decide to leave.
Discussing how long it took her to make the decision to leave the show, Lynne said: ‘I had probably been thinking about leaving the show for a year or two, just in passing – just thinking maybe the time is drawing nigh to change direction and to do a little bit of theatre.’
Did she have any doubts? ‘I never had any doubts, no. And I haven’t had any regrets or any doubts since. I just feel like it was the right thing to have done at the right time.’
