Now that it’s all over between the BBC and Neighbours (they’ve just got to work out who gets child custody), distributors Fremantle have decided to give their side of the story. The Beeb have already been very public about the split, whinging that the hike in the price was “nearly three times the amount” they were currently paying, with Five signing an eight year deal worth a whopping £300million for the soap. But it seems like Fremantle were far from happy with the BBC, believing that after 20 years with them, Neighbours had become “an invisible part of the BBC’s schedule.”

And there’s more. Fremantle’s finance director, Ian Ousey, has defended the channel change: “We put the programme to market. We didn’t just aim to sell it for the highest price as we wanted to give it to a good home.” Five already airs fellow Aussie programme Home and Away, and Ousey is excited about the combination of the two in Five’s scheduling: “It was their [Five’s] idea to twin [Neighbours] with Home and Away and give it an Australian hour which attracted us.”Oooh – an Australian hour? That sounds like a savvy bit of programming.

Five is also, incidentally, the sister company of Fremantle, both being owned by RTL, but Ousey dismisses that detail as insignificant. Neighbours might have been neglected on the BBC, but it was one of their top-rated shows, and it will be interesting to see not only how the BBC fares without it, but also how smooth the show’s transition will be to Five and the much-heralded ‘Australian hour.’

[via Broadcast Now]