It was an announcement of such import that the head of BBC One delivered it in person on the news. After 21 years as a daytime fixture on the BBC, Neighbours is moving to a commercial channel.

Five has poached the Australian soap opera that launched Kylie Minogue to stardom after the BBC dropped out of a bidding war, citing an “unrealistic price demand” when the price rose from £25,000 to £75,000 per episode – £300 million over eight years.

In an age when children are deserting television for the web, the saga of Ramsay Street’s residents still attracts a combined audience of five million to its daily instalments.

Five wanted to lure them to its main channel and new digital service, Five Life, even though many Neighboursdevotees do not receive the digital service.

Five launched an aggressive bid to land Neighbours so that it could pair the show with Home and Away, the Australian soap that it won from ITV in 2000.

Peter Fincham, the Controller of BBC One, appeared on the lunchtime news shortly before yesterday’s episode was broadcast.

“It’s obviously a sad day for BBC One,” he said. “BBC One viewers are used to seeing Neighbours twice a day. We have paid a fair price for this programme. But there has been a bidding war and we were asked to pay a price that we felt we could not pay.”

Burdened with a restricted licence-fee settlement, the BBC could not justify spending so much on an import, he added. He promised that there would be new British-made programming for younger viewers, and compared the situation to the loss of The Simpsons, which was poached by Channel 4 from BBC Two.

Neighbours will disappear from BBC One next spring. But hardcore fans are in uproar. More than 13,000 have signed a web petition demanding that Neighbours remain at the BBC. It reads: “ Neighbours is a part of our lives. We sing along to the theme music, and we remember the stories. Please do not take this away from us.”

The petition claims that viewing figures will drop on a commercial rival.

FremantleMedia, owner of the rights to Neighbours, is part of RTL, the media giant that also owns Five. The show’s departure from BBC One will leave holes in the schedules, and could lead to the corporation losing much of the programme’s target audience.

Michael Grade, who as executive chairman of ITV was an unsuccessful bidder on this occasion, introduced the BBC’s tea-time Neighbours repeat on the advice of his 15-year-old daughter.

Neighbours dominated playground gossip in the late 1980s, powered by the romance between the characters Scott and Charlene, and attracted 12 million viewers.

It is watched in dozens of countries, including Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates and Ghana. EastEnders viewing figures slumped to four million this week – an audience share of 19.6 per cent, its lowest ever – as viewers flocked to the rival soap Emmerdale.

A one-hour Emmerdale special on ITV1 on Thursday attracted 9.1 million at its peak. On BBC One, EastEnders had only four million viewers. Its 19.6 per cent audience share was the lowest for the soap since records began.

Good friends for a while

— Kylie Minogue Charlene Robinson (1986-88)

— Jason Donovan Scott Robinson (1986-89)

— Natalie Imbruglia Beth Willis (1992-94)

— Russell Crowe Kenny Larkin (1987)

— Guy Pearce Mike Young (1986-89)

— Jesse Spencer Billy Kennedy (1994-2000)

— Holly Valance Felicity Scully (1999-2002)

— Radha Mitchell Catherine O’Brien (1996-97)

— Alan Dale Jim Robinson (1985-1993)

— Deltra Goodrem Nina Tucker (2002-05)

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