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Neighbours to screen in Canada

Ramsay Street is about to be seen on Canada's LGBTQ cable channel, OUTtv.

My how far we’ve come…

Neighbours is getting a Canadian broadcast on LGBTQ cable channel, OUTtv.

New episodes will air twice-daily on the same date as its Australian broadcast from April 20, with a weekly catch-up every Saturday.

Whilst noting the show’s launch pad for Guy Pearce, Margot Robbie, Jesse Spencer, Natalie Imbruglia and Kylie Minogue, OUTtv acknowledges the show’s diversity amongst its current characters.

Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv said “Neighbours is one of the most popular drama series in the world with compelling storylines and captivating characters. We look forward to bringing the drama of Ramsay Street to OUTtv, in particular LGBTQ characters Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson), David Tanaka (Takaya Honda) and Steph Scully (Carla Bonner), who will be especially relevant to our audience.”

“Our quest for Neighbours is to be a reflection of our community in terms of diversity and acceptance, and focus on what should be our ‘normal’ as we go about our lives,” said Jason Herbison, Executive Producer, Neighbours. “We are absolutely thrilled that viewers in Canada will be able to experience all our characters on OUTtv and I promise, there will never be a dull moment.”

Michela DiMondo, VP Sales & Distribution at FremantleMedia International added: “Neighbours is one of Australia’s most successful television exports, loved by millions around the world because of its warmth and sense of inclusion. We look forward to our partnership with OUTtv in bringing Neighbours into Canada.”

The news comes less than a month after headlines about contract negotiations between Channel 5 and FremantleMedia stalling.

4 Responses

  1. This seems like an odd choice of show for an LGBT channel, considering that any LGBT representation on Neighbours is still fairly recent (and the Sky/Lana storyline from years gone by was a once-off, likely in an attempt to be sensational). Wouldn’t it have at least made more sense to start at the beginning of the season? This season has already covered ground in their area of interest with the storyline about David stepping in to act as a paternal figure to Paige’s baby, the Steph/Mark/Victoria/Ellen mess, the UST between David and Aaron. These storylines would have helped give context on the current goings-on of the show, whilst endearing the audience to the current slate of characters.

    I haven’t been watching the series for over a decade now, and I’ve only started again upon the return of Dee and everything has fallen into place. I think it’ll be harder to engage viewers…

  2. They’re starting it from the current episodes? That’s 32 years of storylines they’ve missed out on including Scott and Charlene (Kylie and Jason). When aggregation started in Canberra in 1989, Prime Television put together a program telling viewers what had happened in Home and Away before it started screening in Canberra. It seems odd that OUTtv won’t mention Kylie who was embraced by the gay community following the 1988 Logies backlash and who became a singing superstar as a result.

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