The UK's ITV bought Richmond Hill in June 1988, and it was announced by the network in August that encouraged by the huge success of its sister-series Neighbours on the BBC, they had paid £600'000 for the rights to screen the series. Thames Television, the ITV region serving the London area, managed the series for the network, and regions opted in to a dedicated feed from Thames.Sunday 07 August 1988 Sunday Mirror "TV chat" Page: 25Saturday 06 August 1988. Evening Herald (Dublin) "G'day" Page 2" ITV decided to show Richmond Hill in a daytime Wednesday and Thursday 14:00 slot and it began 5 October 1988. The intention was for all ITV regions to air the same episode, on the same day, at the same time, which would have been a first for an Australian soap opera on ITV, but had been tried once before with the American daytime soap opera Santa Barbara in 1987. Many of the ITV regions temporarily dropped another Australian series, A Country Practice, from their schedule to make way for the two weekly episodes of Richmond Hill and it isn't known whether it was ever intended to be a networked primetime series on ITV, although in April 1988, the ITV network cancelled Crossroads, leaving 3 half-hour evening slots. This would have meant the re-formatting of episodes, but Network Ten's cancellation of Richmond Hill seemingly resulted in ITV losing interest in the series completely, and its mid-afternoon timeslot meant that it didn't achieve anywhere near the audience figures that Neighbours, was achieving in its tea-time slot over on BBC One.
