Amazon has expressed interest in collecting Neighborhood almost immediately after its very sentimental finale screened last year on 10 and Channel Five (UK).
Speaking to Screen Forever recently, Daniel Monaghan, Senior Vice President, Content & Programming, Paramount ANZ said: “We’ve always been told openly when Neighborhood ended last year. We have partnered with Channel Five for so long, but have been unable to find a partner to continue broadcasting, which we were devastated by until that wonderful day last year, not long after the epic finale is aired – we found out that the Amazon Freevee was interested.
“It’s a really good partnership. I think Freevee will do a great job in the rest of the world and we’ll have that Australian premiere on the 10th and then it will also air on 10Play and (Prime Video), after a period of time.
The deal between three broadcasters was cobbled together by Fremantle CEO Greg Woods.
Tyler Bern, Head of Content, Prime Video Australia, New Zealand, Canada explained: “Essentially there are three commissioners, really. It’s Channel 10, Prime Video and Freevee. So it’s a unique set of rights. It’s a really interesting field that we’re able to bring together because there’s the obvious partnership between Channel 10 and Prime Video in Australia.
“Channel 10 premieres and episodes show up on Prime Video seven days later. Freevee has its premiere in the UK. If you’re not familiar with Freevee, it’s a sister service to Prime Video. It is our ad-supported service. So it’s completely different content and there’s a different team within Amazon that commissions original content and licensing for Freevee.
“Freevee wanted in the UK Neighborhood because it rates about a million people per episode… it’s crazy. And then Prime Video has Neighborhood in Canada, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand. Neighborhood will be on Freevee in the US, UK, Germany and Austria.
Filming is currently underway in Melbourne with a cast including Stefan Dennis, Jackie Woodburne, Alan Fletcher, Ryan Moloney, Annie Jones, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Georgie Stone, Tim Kano, Lucinda Cowden and guest star Mischa Barton (pictured).
“We can all claim casting Mischa, I will claim, Tyler can claim, but neither of us did it,” Monaghan joked.
“But it gave us some noise. We’ve been announcing the cast pretty slowly as to who will be returning and what new faces we have.
“Look for it later in the year.”
