Fremantle and the British production company RoseBerry Media have announced that they are transforming the archive of the Australian soap Neighbours into a vertical format for smartphones. It starts with Margot Robbie. She played Donna Freedman in the series from 2008 to 2011, and two of her storylines will become roughly 150 minutes of mobile content.
Neighbours ran from 1985 to 2025 and comprises 9,363 episodes. The transformation is handled by RedSnapper, RoseBerry's in-house production workflow, which uses AI to reformat TV and film archives for smartphones. Besides Robbie, prominent alumni of the series include Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Jesse Spencer.
The new content will go to the Epis platform, which RoseBerry launched globally in July 2026 with more than 100 titles and 25 original productions planned for this year.
“'Neighbours' is an iconic piece of television history and exactly the kind of premium entertainment IP we believe can thrive in the vertical format. This is the first time we've had the opportunity to apply RedSnapper to a long-running soap with such a rich library of characters, storylines and cultural moments, and Fremantle has been a fantastic partner in helping bring that vision to life,” said Guy Hameiri, co-founder and CEO of RoseBerry.
“'Neighbours' has an extraordinary legacy, with decades of memorable characters, stories and talent. Working with RoseBerry allows us to explore incredible archive in an entirely new way, bringing much-loved IP to new audiences while demonstrating how established television libraries can continue to evolve, find new relevance and importantly create new commercial opportunities,” added Jens Richter, Commercial and International CEO of Fremantle.
Soap opera as a school for actors
Soap operas have historically worked as a systematic school for acting talent: a high volume of scenes, fast shooting and continuous work in front of the camera. Matt Campion, founder of the British Spirit Studios, wrote in his LinkedIn post about the announcement: “Soaps have always been one of the great talent factories of our industry. Neighbours gave us Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce and Kylie Minogue. Home and Away gave us Chris Hemsworth, Heath Ledger and Naomi Watts. Behind the camera, generations of writers, directors, producers and crew learned their craft by making huge amounts of television, quickly, week after week.”
The audience of this school has meanwhile moved elsewhere. According to Nielsen, YouTube was the most-watched distributor of TV content in the US in July 2026 with 14.2%, ahead of all the traditional broadcasters. Campion addressed precisely this generation in the same post: “Increasingly, young talent aren't sitting around waiting to audition for a TV executive. They're picking up a phone, building their own platforms, finding their own audiences and taking those audiences with them as their careers grow. The creator economy isn't sitting alongside the traditional talent system anymore — it's becoming a huge part of what replaces it.” On vertical drama he added: “And soap and vertical drama actually have a lot in common. Big characters, relationships, secrets, cliffhangers and a relentless need to know what happens next.”
Lime Pictures enters vertical production
The British Lime Pictures, part of the Banijay group and the maker of Hollyoaks, released its first original vertical production on 16 September 2026. It is Revenge Is a Dish, a 57-episode romantic thriller about the Rochat restaurateur dynasty, made as a co-production with RoseBerry and available globally on Epis.
“Verticals cross skillset with soap as they require pacey storytelling, huge hooks and from the actors, the ability to shoot a high volume of high-drama scenes, with limited rehearsal time,” said Angelo Abela, co-head of writing at Lime Pictures and director of the series. Lime Pictures is also preparing a second original series for Epis, Make Me a Match.
A European archive in mobile format
RoseBerry has signed agreements for access to European IP archives with Banijay Rights, All3Media International, A+E Global Media and Cineflix Rights, according to Variety. In an interview, Hameiri described the Neighbours deal as the start of efforts to reimagine existing content for different distribution channels, including beyond the Epis platform.
Its direct competitors are ReelShort and DramaBox, platforms for short mobile dramas of originally Chinese provenance. ReelShort is heading for revenue of more than $1 billion in 2026 and 70 million monthly active users, according to Deadline. YouTube with its Shorts Series is now entering the same demand too, free of charge through an advertising model. European content has so far been missing in this segment.
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