Classic episodes will soon start airing on new channel That’s TV 2.
While Home and Away continues to air brand new episodes on Channel 5, the long-running Australian soap will soon be bringing classic episodes to a new Freeview TV channel.
The channel, That’s TV 2, is a sister channel to That’s TV, and will also be airing other classic series including Humans, Baywatch and Prisoner: Cell Block H. It will start broadcasting from Wednesday 3rd January on Freeview channel 65, Sky channel 188 and Freesat channel 181.
The episodes of Home and Away will be airing to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the soap, giving viewers the opportunity to relive the show’s first episodes, not seen on terrestrial TV since it all started.
Head of Programming for That’s TV and That’s TV 2, Kris Vaiksalu, said: “Over the past year That’s TV has reached new heights and we now have a schedule bursting with iconic TV shows from Benidorm to Shameless.
“There are so many more iconic TV shows we would love to show but we had simply run out of hours to fit them in. So I asked myself, what would Einstein do? It’s been a lot of work but we’re hugely excited and privileged to be launching That’s TV 2 as our second archive TV channel.”
Happy 35 years to us! #HomeandAway #35years #summerbay #birthday #anniversary pic.twitter.com/5NnvcrVbxO
— Home and Away (@homeandaway) January 17, 2023
Vaiksalu continued: “Our aim is to make it a complete nostalgia-fest with such iconic shows from the beginning as Home and Away, Humans, Prisoner Cell Block H and Baywatch. That’s TV 2 does what it says on the tin – it’s a second helping of iconic TV from the That’s TV team.”
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Home and Away first started airing on 17th January 1988, and Channel 5 acquired the rights to the Australian soap in 2000. The channel has been airing brand new episodes ever since.
Following the cancellation of Neighbours (which was later rebooted) in 2022, fans had worried about the future of Home and Away as well – however, Channel 5’s director of programmes, Ben Frow, revealed there was no prospect of the soap getting dropped by the broadcaster ahead of time.
He said: “I think it will be interesting to see what we do with it as we evolve. There might be somewhere else to put it in the 5 spectrum. But it’s a life-of-series deal, so it’s not going anywhere until the makers decide to cancel it.”
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1:45pm on Channel 5 and at 6pm on 5STAR. You can catch the first-look on weekdays at 6.30pm on 5STAR, and the show also streams on My5. Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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