Neon Nabs Love Island UK
January 6, 2020 
11 Comments
Sky’s Neon will start streaming Love Island UK from January 14.
The series bombed last year on Three, when the broadcaster tried to shoehorn the racy show into a 5pm slot as the lead-in to Newshub Live.
But it performed well on ThreeNow and there will be six new episodes a week on Neon “Express” as well as post-analysis show Love Island UK: Aftersun from January 21.
Season six is being filmed in a Cape Town villa. Laura Whitmore is the new host and her boyfriend Iain Stirling will narrate Aftersun.
It will be the first time ITV2 has broadcast a winter season of its summer hit.
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January 7, 2020 at 10:39 am
Interesting development. So many questions I have. Does this mean Three have given up any interest in the series and a future local version? Will Three retain the rights to Love Island US and Australia?
Hey, Leo. MediaWorks no longer has rights to any of the Love Island series and won’t be proceeding with a NZ version.
Wow, just like that they have given up on LI. It was nearly 12 months ago, that Three was triumphantly declaring it had secured all the LI series and a local version coming soon, a lot can happen in that amount of time. So will TVNZ OnDemand make a play for her Aussie and American versions or has Neon sewn up all the rights, Philip?
I imagine Sky has all the rights as it’s intent on making Neon a major streaming player and will see the Love Island franchise as a great opportunity to lure new subscribers. The question is: while Love Island was a big hit on TVNZ OnDemand and ThreeNow, will people be willing to pay to stream it?
I hope whoever ends up buying Three will sort their mess out and will get rid of reality TV shows. They need a complete overhaul with top notch shows and movies. Also, their online site needs to be more like TVNZ OnDemand. I have spoken 🙂
You certainly have, Trevor. Agree with you re ThreeNow but stripped reality shows have been Three’s salvation over the past five years. In the streaming age, FTA TV needs unique properties that will keep viewers tuning in night after night to see what happens next. I don’t see that strategy changing whoever winds up with the network.
Oh well, I had my say. I really do think it’s a overkill in the reality TV shows department besides what the ratings say. Hopefully the new owners will have rights to shows and movies we haven’t seen in New Zealand. It also will be interesting to see what the Government decides on in regards to the future of broadcasting in New Zealand, that’s quite a big decision 🙂
Stuff claims that Love Island performed well on both FTA and 3Now according to their article. If it performed well on Three you’d think they keep it for another season …
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/118638239/love-island-uk-is-coming-back-but-youll-have-to-pay-to-see-it-on-neon
Certainly news to me that it rated well on FTA, Fsmith. My reading of the ratings for that period says otherwise. As you point out, if it was successful, why relinquish the rights, burn off Love Is Oz late-night and can plans for a NZ version? Btw, Sky says it’s yet to decide if it will stream/air the US and Oz versions and won’t be making a Love Is NZ.
Hey, Trevor. I’m afraid the reality TV overkill isn’t just limited to broadcast networks. Deadline reports “Netflix is expanding its unscripted slate with a 10-episode order to Love is Blind, its first serialised unscripted dating series”.
YUCK, thanks for the warning Philip. Speaking of Netflix I watched a couple of episodes of a new show called Medical Police, not sure if I like it or not. It’s fun but rather silly, it’s kinda like the Naked Gun movies but badly needs a Leslie Nielsen 🙂