Days of Our Lives Characters - External Distribution

External Distribution

See also: Screening of daytime soap operas in Australia

According to Variety, Days of our Lives is the most widely-distributed soap opera in the United States, with episodes not just broadcast via NBC, but also via cable (SOAPnet), and as of June 2007, episodes are offered via iTunes. and also has an international audience.

In Australia, it started broadcasting locally on 25 March 1968 at 12 noon, via the Nine Network. Over time, Days of our Lives ended up airing at a delay of nearly five years behind the United States due to cricket pre-emptions in the summer, so in 2004, Nine aired a special titled Days of our Lives: A New Day, which summarized four years of storyline in one hour, in an attempt to catch up to more current telecasts. This speed-up caused mixed feelings as viewers missed many vital storylines and it landed right in the middle of the Melaswen storyline. Now, episodes are 16 months behind the United States and will eventually fall to again being years behind due to summer cricket.

Throughout Canada, Days of our Lives currently airs at 1:00 pm on Global Television Network. Episodes are aired in sync with the NBC broadcast to take advantage of simultaneous substitution regulations. However Global stations in the Prairies air the show a day before the U.S broadcast (Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg affiliates) The show also airs on Newfoundland's NTV at 1:30pm Newfoundland Standard Time. Since September 5, 2011, French-language network TVA has aired the show in Quebec as a 30 minutes serial under the name Des jours et des vies; it premiered with episodes that originally aired on NBC in early 2002. The Quebec version is exactly the same translation as the one running in France which has been on the air since 2000.

New Zealand has aired Days of our Lives nearly as long, debuting on Television New Zealand by 1975 at the latest, and was currently running approximately five years behind the United States on TV ONE. TVNZ Stopped airing Days of our Lives on 19 May 2010 despite a national petition from fans, Sky has no plans to pick it up.

In South Africa the soap airs on SABC 3 each weekday from 16:30 to 17:30. Episodes are currently 2 and a half years behind that of the USA.

Days of our Lives also airs in a number of countries across Europe, premiering in Turkey on October 8, 1990, France on July 29, 1991, and since July 1998 after the end of Loving diffusion on France 2 (currently 6 years behind the U.S.), Germany on September 6, 1993, Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 1997 (currently four years behind the U.S.), Finland on August 11, 2003, and Hungary on June 14, 2004. Channel 5 aired episodes of Days of our Lives in the United Kingdom from March 2000 to April 2001, eventually pulling it off the air; network executives deemed its audience of 200,000 viewers as too low a figure. Days had previously aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on the Sky Soap channel between 1994 and 1999; episodes were three years behind U.S. telecasts. Days of our Lives became available to viewers again in the United Kingdom in 2007 - to 2010; CBS Drama ended the run after relegating the show from daytime to 1.00am.

In Italy Days of our Lives aired for only three months in 1985 on Rete A with the title Passano gli anni, passano i giorni; in 1992 Italia 7 started to air Days of our Lives with a new title, Il tempo della nostra vita, and new episodes, five years behind U.S. telecasts. In 1993, after 260 episodes, the show was cancelled.

In Greece the show aired from 1994-1996 on Mega Channel (focusing on the Cruise of Deception storyline), 1997-2000 on Star Channel (broadcasting the 1992-1995 Reily era), and 2005-2006 on NET (with the first 320 episodes of the Salem Stalker/Melaswen storyline).On February 2011 the show continued on ET1 in a late night zone...

In the Middle East and the Arab World, Days of our Lives aired on MBC2 before moving to MBC4, with episodes 5 years behind the U.S.

In Barbados the show is very popular, though being several years behind the U.S., and is aired on the island's lone television broadcaster, CBC TV 8. Viewing time is 6 pm during weekdays.

Belize's Tropical Vision Limited features Days of our Lives as an afternoon staple. Currently it airs at 2:00 pm UTC-6 (Central Time), though it previously aired as early as 1:00 pm or as late as 5:30 pm as a lead in to the news.