SoapClassics today announced that it has started streaming episodes of AS THE WORLD TURNS on the internet. The episodes are primarily meant for viewers in the Netherlands and South Africa, where the series recently went off the air, but they can also be viewed from any country in the world.SoapClassics President Mark Yates said, “This is our first step into the world of streaming episodic television. We’re starting with the Netherlands and South Africa because the series just came off the air in both countries, and interest there is still very high. For instance, in South Africa, the show has over a million viewers a day. It still has three years to run, but it was just replaced by another show. So we’re going to pick up right where they left off, with episodes from 2007."
"In the Netherlands, the show has about 750,000 viewers," Yates continued. "Dutch television just broadcast the final episode in the series, and the fans are clamoring for more. So we’re going to run the series for them again, starting with the 2005 season.”
“This is just the beginning of streaming for us. Fans in the US still miss the show terribly, and so far we’ve only been able to put out a limited number of episodes on DVD. Now we’ll be able to offer the fans a much larger selection. We’ll be showing entire seasons, but we’re also going to do some creative things, like showing an extended series of episodes which trace a great storyline, or which tell the story of a much-loved character or couple. We’re also going to offer fun collections of themed episodes. For instance, there were over 100 weddings on AS THE WORLD TURNS, and so far we’ve only been able to show 5 of them on DVD. We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of this great series.”
AS THE WORLD TURNS was the second longest running daytime drama in the history of television. It aired for over 50 years, had more than 50 million viewers, and told countless memorable stories. Many famous actors and actresses got their start on the show, including Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore, and Marisa Tomei.
SoapClassics is the world’s leading distributor of classic American soap operas. It has the rights to over 12,000 episodes of some of history’s most famous daytime dramas; AS THE WORLD TURNS, GUIDING LIGHT, THE EDGE OF NIGHT, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, ANOTHER WORLD and TEXAS. The company’s international streaming site is located at www.worldturns.nl.
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