ITV is cutting the weekly episodes of its flagship soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale.<\/p>\n
The Manchester and London-based channel confirmed that from January 2026 its ITV1 scheduling will feature a \u201csoaps power hour\u201d Monday to Friday.<\/p>\n
The current schedule sees Coronation Street air three hour-long episodes while Emmerdale – which is filmed in Yorkshire – airs four 30-minute shows and one hour-long episode.<\/p>\n
Under the new-look schedule, which ITV said is \u201cviewer led\u201d, Emmerdale will air 30-minute episodes at 8pm with Coronation Street following on at 8.30pm for half an hour. The changes meaning both soaps will effectively lose an episode a week<\/p>\n
Episodes will continue to drop at 7am on ITVX, before transmission that evening.<\/p>\n
ITV\u2019s Managing Director of Media and Entertainment Kevin Lygo said: “The new commissioning pattern is viewer-led. We already give more choice than ever to viewers on how they watch us through ITVX and we want to present their favourite soap to them, in the most digestible way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world where there is so much competition for viewers’ time and attention, and viewing habits continue to change, we believe this is the right amount of episodes that fans can fit into their viewing schedule, to keep up to date with the shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch insights also show us that soap viewers are increasingly looking to the soaps for their pacey storytelling. Streaming-friendly, 30-minute episodes better provide the opportunity to meet viewer expectations for storyline pace, pay-off and resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst viewing is growing on ITVX, we know a significant proportion of our soaps\u2019 audience still watch us via the schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new pattern is in the DNA of the soap genre – nobody else does 30-minute drama this successfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt creates a soap power hour that’s consistent, and easy to find in the linear schedule, for the UK\u2019s biggest soaps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change to five hours of soaps a week will, says Lygo, \u201chave an impact for the people who work on the soaps team\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe are conscious this will have an impact for the people who work on the soaps team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will support our colleagues in ITV Studios as they work through these changes and will do what we can to mitigate the impact on our people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes are motivated by doing what we believe is best for the continuing success of these important programmes in the long term.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey also create headroom in the overall programme budget for investment in programming that can help ITV grow reach in a very, very competitive market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“We believe this is the right amount of episodes that fans can fit into their viewing schedule”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271992,"featured_media":2054533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,120783],"coauthors":[137100],"class_list":["post-2134380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative","category-media","tag-featured-story","tag-greater-manchester","tag-west-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\n