Network boss: 'Neighbours needs work'

Australia's Channel Ten has admitted that Neighbours "needs work" following the soap's recent ratings slump.

The long-running serial has this year been pulling in some of its lowest ever audience figures in its home country, with the show's milestone 6,000th episode now just weeks away.

In recent days, there has been a flurry of speculation surrounding the drama's future on Ten. Some reports have suggested that the programme could be shunted from its 6.30pm timeslot to make way for Sports Tonight, while others have stated that it could be shifted to Ten's new digital channel in 2011.

Responding to the rumours, Ten's head of programming David Mott told The Sunday Telegraph: "There's certainly a lot of speculation in the landscape, and, somewhere amongst all this, will be the truth, and the truth will be known when we're ready to announce something.

"Neighbours does need some work, and we're hoping we can get there on that. I can say that Neighbours will be part of the Ten family going forward, and there's a deal we're talking to [production company] Fremantle about at the moment."

Speaking about the possibility of Neighbours moving to Ten's digital channel, a source said: "They need to do something with it, and this is on the table, although it's certainly not something FremantleMedia would be happy with."

Neighbours' executive producer Susan Bower recently encouraged fans to step up their support for the show.