From the Guardian :

Endemol revenues up 40%

Independent TV producer Endemol UK, the reality specialist behind Big Brother, Fame Academy and The Salon, boosted its revenues by nearly 40% last year to £90m, as broadcasters' appetite for the much maligned genre showed no sign of abating.
Endemol increased its revenue from £65m in 2002 to £90m last year, as the independent's total output grew to more than 8,000 hours with a series of long-running reality show commissions.

These figures make Endemol, which has a permanent staff of 200 and up to 800 on the payroll during big productions such as Big Brother, one of the UK's top independent producers, both in terms of revenue and output.

In addition to Big Brother, Fame Academy and two series of The Salon, other new Endemol shows last year included a celebrity version of Fame Academy for BBC1's Comic Relief, The Games for Channel 4 and BBC2's Restoration.

The company's single most lucrative relationship is with Channel 4, with revenues rocketing from £18.1m in 2002 to £40.9m in 2003.

That will cause comment among many in the industry as the Endemol chairman, Peter Bazalgette, is a director of Channel 4.

But the Channel 4 annual report, which reveals the revenue breakdown, stated that he "played no part in the decisions to commission" any Endemol shows.

Endemol more than doubled its Channel 4 revenue thanks to extended hours for Big Brother, new commission The Games, and two series of The Salon being on air every day on the main network and pay-TV channel E4 for more than six months during the year.

Endemol also continues to make Ground Force and Changing Rooms for BBC1 and Ready Steady Cook for BBC2.

The company's 2003 revenues also include contributions from new media subsidiary Victoria Real, which is responsible for the Big Brother website, and independent producer Brighter Pictures, which made controversial Sky One show There's Something About Miriam.

Endemol is the UK arm of the Dutch production company of the same name, which is in turn owned by Spanish telecoms and broadcasting conglomerate Telefonica.

Bet they don't increase the prize money tho'

What do you think should it stay at £70k or should it be more?

sorry, this got posted twice

I think it should be £100k, especially if it runs for 10 weeks, they'll need the extra dosh to get some therapy after being cooped up for that long ..lol

Yeah ..... £100k sounds right ......

Thanks for the report -it was very interesting.

Big Brother is very much the flagship.

BB5 has to be a success-and I am very sure it will be.Perhaps it may even rival BB3.

I agree about the prize money -it always seemed small compared to say the Survivor one.
Maybe any rise should also be backdated for the previous winners as an extra incentive.

I always thought the idea was that it was a comparibly small prize - I seem to remember a producer saying "if you're just in it for the cash then go on Millionaire or something" (OK, slightly paraphrasing, i'm sure...)

well that is true-is it because HM's become well known and can make money after they leave the house?

And winning isn't the main driver of that anyway-ie Jade and Alex went for as much money as possible as quickly as possible.Kate and Jonny have built hard working careers-avoiding cash from dubious means.

Also some people like Jon and Cameron have very lucrative jobs anyway that they have or can go back to.

Maybe they should put out press which give the impression there will be limited coverage? Hopefully this will deter housemates and their agents from applying?


*wishfull thinking*

Funny that €ndemols entire programme output seems to revolve around phone lines at 38 p or so a call.

Do they make any programmes that do not involve increasing revenue by getting people to phone in to vote at premium rates? The only one I think is Ready Steady Cook, I think, please correct me if I am wrong.