Shortland Street - International Broadcasting

International Broadcasting

Australia, the show airs on two networks. Foxtel's Arena channel airs the show weekdays at 6.30pm with episodes 6 weeks behind New Zealand. Free-to-air multi channel 7TWO screens the show at 10.30am weekday mornings, with a repeat the following morning at 4.30am - 7Two episodes are approximately 22 months behind New Zealand. Previous Australian broadcasters include: ABC1 2010-2011, UKTV 1997-2000, and SBS TV briefly between 1994-1995.

Ireland, the show has been on air since 1996 screening weekdays on RTE One usually around 12 midday with a repeat airing late-night at around 2:30am.

Cook Islands, the show is screened on Cook Island Television at 8.00pm weekdays. It is one of the most popular shows in the Cook Islands.

United Kingdom, was originally screened on various regions of the ITV network from 1993 to 2003. From 29 March 1993, Central Television were the first ITV region to screen the soap, beginning in an afternoon timeslot, 1520-1550. From 1994 to 2000, it was shown in an early evening timeslot, at either 1710-1740 and, later at 1730-1800. Other ITV regions also screened Shortland Street at their own pace, usually during daytime although some (HTV and Granada) followed Central's early-evening example for a short time. Scottish Television have never shown Shortland Street. Central eventually moved the serial to a lunchtime slot, 1300-1330 from September 2000 and it remained here for over two years.
From January 2003, the Carlton-owned ITV regions including Central, Westcountry, HTV and Carlton-London networked Shortland Street in an afternoon slot, 1430–1500, Monday to Wednesday, with a Thursday episode added a few months later. A special programme was aired (presented by Michael Galvin and Angela Bloomfield) introducing new viewers to the show whilst viewers in other regions had to endure a massive jump in storylines to join up with Central who were considerably ahead (up to 5 years in some cases). Meanwhile, the Granada-owned regions, such as Yorkshire Television and Meridian dropped the series entirely, opting for local programming instead. However, Shortland Street failed to attract a significant audience in its new afternoon slot and it was axed completely by ITV and was last shown on 28 August 2003, finishing at episode 2367. Central had shown the serial consecutively for over 10 years, leaving many fans in the Midlands very disappointed. Almost 7 years later, it was announced on 5 August 2010, that Shortland Street would return to British television on 23 August 2010 on Living TV. Living began airing two episodes a day from the 2007 season with Episodes 3736/3737 which originally aired in New Zealand on 21/22 May 2007 beginning on 23 August 2010 at 15.00-16.00 (and repeated at 10.00 the following morning). However four weeks into its run, the morning repeats were dropped by Living, and as of Monday 20 September moving from 15.00-16.00 and 12.00-13.00. As from Monday 27 September 2010, it is to be shown on Living Loves from 18.00-19.00 Monday to Friday with five repeat episodes shown on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It has been confirmed that Living Loves will axe Shortland Street with the final episode shown on 29 October 2010.

South Africa, in previous years South Pacific Pictures publicity has claimed the show was sold to the South African black homeland of Bophuthatswana, which journalists have used to demonstrate Shortland Street's interracial appeal.