Hollyoaks bosses have announced that the show will move to a permanent 'streaming first' strategy next month, making it the first UK soap to premiere new episodes on demand ahead of linear broadcast.
From then, one new episode will be released on Channel 4's All 4 service every weekday morning, before its E4 screening at 7pm that evening and the Channel 4 repeat at 6.30pm the following day.
Channel 4's head of drama Caroline Hollick said: 'It feels like a natural step for Hollyoaks with its youthful outlook and audience to be the first UK soap to premiere new episodes on our streaming service on an ongoing basis.' Executive producer Lucy Allan added that the move is 'progressive and full of opportunities'.
Hollyoaks previously experimented with early releases for Christmas box sets in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Other soaps including EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale adopted similar approaches during the Euros and festive periods.
In 2021, Hollyoaks was the most-streamed scripted series on All 4 and the second most-streamed overall. The January explosion episode was the most-streamed Hollyoaks episode in 12 months.
