Historic soaps shake up could see Coronation Street and Emmerdale OFF ITV1

CORONATION Street and Emmerdale could be set for a huge streaming shake up to boost viewing figures.

Nervous telly bosses are considering a new way of delivering soaps to fans after noticing fewer people tuning in to ITV1.

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Emmerdale and Coronation Street occupy a large chunk of the channel's schedule, airing five times each every week and including one hour-long episode.

An insider explained: "Soaps don't make as much advertising money as they used to. 

"There are some chiefs looking enviously at all the consumer-themed documentaries Channel 5 makes and thinking that there could be better commercial opportunities in that kind of programming, and using the slots allocated to the soaps for those instead."

They added to the Mail: "Corrie and Emmerdale are losing viewers at a drop of around ten per cent on last year. 

"Budgets have already been cut on both shows and it is hard to see how they can sustain so many episodes."

As the TV landscape continues to change, soaps have revamped how they deliver their episodes for a digital age.

Hollyoaks, a soap more youth focused than its rivals, became the UK’s first streaming-led soap.

While E4 always offered a First Look at the next day's Channel 4 episode of Hollyoaks, bosses went one step further earlier this year.

New episodes of Hollyoaks are now available to stream the day before they premiere on E4 and are also available in full via YouTube the following week.

Meanwhile last year, EastEnders attracted the most viewers on Christmas day.

Over 3.17million people tuned in to the BBC soap, compared to Coronation Street which was watched by 2.85 million, while Emmerdale had 2.56 million viewers.

Telly execs will be keeping a close eye on 2023's figures.

Overall, soap audiences are down 42 per cent since 2014.