Exceptional performance by both The Voice and Britain's Got Talent last night. Everyone involved should be over the moon even if Talent is on course for another (somewhat) unfair kicking from the press this week.


I honestly don't know why people think the Battle Rounds are the weakest part of the format. They make for some brilliant television as they usually contain some amazing performances and some genuine tension and surprises as the coaches decide who to keep and who to get rid of.


And again we come back to the position of whether or not the BBC should be getting into bidding wars not only with Sky but ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and now ESPN over sports contracts. With basically every major broadcaster (and ESPN) on the hunt for sports contracts it simply isn't realistic to expect the BBC to maintain the level of sports coverage they had 3 years ago unless you're advocating them throwing huge sums of money after these contracts – in which case we get the over side of the coin where people bemoan how much the BBC is spending on content that could have gone to ITV or Channel's 4 and 5. Beyond that there's also the issue that the BBC (just like everyone else) aren't really in a position to be able to outbid Sky when they decide they want a sports contract although I would agree that they should try and keep some kind of stake in that content and stop it going behind a pay wall completely.


How much money are you advocating they spend to rectify that?

Sky are reportedly paying £195 million for exclusive rights to league football should the BBC have tried to compete with that bid? Or should they have paid the £70 million that's short of the last Sky/BBC joint deal for league football rights? That assumes Sky would have let them do that and weren't looking for exclusive rights. Or maybe they should spend £100+ million on the Premier League rights that ESPN currently have? Or at least on one of the Premier League packages that are available? Or they could have spent £90+ million to get ITV's FA Cup/England games rights? Or more still on picking up ESPN's FA Cup package?

Its all well and good to say that its a shame the BBC don't have live football outside of the two major international championships (and I agree it is) but the reason for that is its bloody expensive. Had the BBC gone after the FA Cup/England games rights that ITV currently have then that I suspect would have easily driven the price of that over £100 million for a two-year contract. If the BBC were to make a play for live Premier League games then I dread to think what kind of offers Sky and ESPN would put in to stop them with my £100+ million above being very much on the low side.


You make it sound as if the BBC were the home of horse racing until this year. More importantly than this though they let the rights go to a FTA commercial broadcast rather than getting involved a potentially costly bidding war for them. I don't think that's a terrible thing. It might not be great for BBC Sport but the viewer isn't actually losing out here and that should really be more important than the BBC Sport department at this stage. I think its time people accepted that it simply is not viable for the BBC to hold any and every sports contract you want them to have.


And now the BBC should be all about ratings - where are all those 'that's not the purpose of the BBC' posters when you want them?

From my perspective there's a space for ratings chasing (and BBC Sport still have contracts that are very much capable of big numbers) but that isn't all the BBC is nor is it all BBC Sport should be. The contracts capable of pulling big numbers are never going to be short of commercial broadcasters wanting to air them so perhaps there's an argument to be made that the BBC shouldn't be as focused on those contracts but on smaller sports that others aren't so interested in and if it weren't for the BBC would probably only ever find a home behind a pay wall...?

Wow. That IS good.
BGT should look at a repeat that incorporates both shows - so like QI XL/Have I got more news etc.

I can see The Voice ratings going even higher next week. The previews for battle rounds looked fantastic! great for the BBC here. Its a monster hit.

I can't see the momentum stopping until maybe three weeks' time if the FA Cup Final (with its new 5.15pm kick-off time) goes into extra time or penalties. Next week's 'Battle Round' stage is being billed as an 'event', and particularly with no BGT overlap and a Sunday episode next week, it could go up another level. The first week of live shows will be hyped up as well, I'd imagine, so could bring in some more viewers.

After that, it might get a bit more difficult holding or building momentum for TVUK. There'll be the:

- FA Cup Final on 5th May: this will only be a problem if it goes into extra time as the regular 90-mins will be over by 19.05. If it goes to penalties though, TVUK will probably be facing >8m competition between 7-8pm.
- BGT final on 12th May: which could overshadow it publicity-wise even if they don't actually clash against each other. If there is a scheduling clash, it'll restrict how high up it can peak (same as last few weeks).
- Champions League Final on 19th May: shouldn't be much of a problem if Chelsea are knocked out in the semis. Although even if they do make it, kick-off isn't until 19.45 so the performance show should be alright mostly up against pre-match buildup, but results show might be knocked down more
- Friday episode on 26th May: moved from Saturday due to Eurovision, it could face Corrie if airing 8.30-10pm. 9-10pm will be better but Friday obviously isn't the best day ratings-wise.
- The final on 2nd June will face easy competition, but the few weeks' prior could find it difficult building momentum.

To be honest, I'm always surprised how few viewers the spin-off shows secure. Can't say I've seen an edition this year, but is it not the case that a fair portion of the show is just additional auditions from new acts? So basically exactly the same content as the main show - and yet it gets about 12% of the viewers?

I mean OK, it's ITV2 - but Celebrity Juice shows how many viewers can find it on the dial if they want. Surely with a prompt and a promise of more of the same from one of ITV1's biggest shows, it should get more viewers? Just sounding off... I've always wondered this since I learned they carried original auditions. I used to just think it was 100% behind-the-scenes chat, in which case the figures made more sense.

Though it naturally has the advantage of a terrestrial platform itself, You're Fired remains the king of the spin-off shows. It regularly seems to manage about 40%+ retention from the main show. And you would think the content would be less compelling than that on BGMT...

If it can hold power over BGT, than some of these Events will have minor effects, the Friday Show still confuses me, but with a lead in from EastEnders, I can't imagine it dropping too far anyway, even if Corrie is on the other side, same day time shifting should cover some of their lost viewers... Sunday could have worked??

The momentum behind it is still building so even if that peaks next week, it'll have a long way to fall to fail, even if it drops to the mid 9's on the nights where there a bit of trouble, it will still be one of the biggest new shows this year, something the BBC are starting to have a lot of...

You're right about BGT's ratings. It averaged 9.6m and 10.2m with +1 a watershed moment for The Voice. It won the overlap and the night.

Most of the extra auditions aren't that good and there is a lot of behind the scenes chat. BGMT has quite a lot of silly games/sketches too, and the whole production isnt really anything like the main show. Of course when they get to the live shows it is just backstage chat too.

Worth noting though that the spin-offs repeat very well for ITV2 too, regularly getting pretty much as many repeat viewers as the main show (which obviously for a show that only gets a million or so original viewers is quite a big deal) - I bet it gets about 2.5-3 million a week 'all in'.

Indeed, although remember that BGT's tapechecked rating will be higher.

Have the BBC actually announced what they're doing with this Friday show yet? Holding the semi-final on a Friday night just seems like madness to me. I still think they'd be better off making some kind of big results shows from the previous two live shows and just announcing who the finalists are on the Friday show instead.

And the fact it's getting 10m pretty much and peaking at 12m shows that BGT isn't dead like others claim or hope. This Morning will only mention the peak I'd imagine and nothing about The Voice. Holly will probably smirk.

I think they're doing the semi final then. It's a bit awkward but they should be fine as long as they promote it. Making people wait 2 weeks for a set of results would be worse.

Scheduling wise I think their best option would be for a performances show running 21:00-22:00 (or 20:30-22:00) and the results on the Saturday 19:00-19:50 before Eurovision.

Wow is all I can say for The Voice . Viewers are loving it, they are recommending it to other people, the strongest way of advertising is good old word of mouth. And The Voice has plenty of that! People have sampled all the shows around and seem to have come to the conclusion that The Voice offers them the most entertainment on a Saturday night and its now turned into Britains favourite talent show. Imagine all the great PR its gonna get this week, probably guarantee another few hundred thousand watching next Saturday!

The Voice has done remarkably well and maybe its not so far off the track to say its actually propelling BGT's highest figures for several years-and may well have a positive knock on effect for X Factor later in the year. Thats quite an impact.
However that National peak is fantastic, if the remit for the BBC is to bring the nation together for an event then on balance thats about as much as could be done. The criticism from some quarters regarding losing the contract will rumble on imo, and as Channel 4 have hardly or not seen 10 million viewers at any point since the eighties, its hard to see that peak being approached next year.

Does those numbers include RaboPro Driect 12 coverage, I doubt it.

Do you have a link showing that the FA have confirmed 5.15pm as the Cup Final KO time?


This link isn't quite correct as Arsenal v Norwich will be played on Saturday 5th May at 12.45pm but all other PL matches will be played on Sunday 6th May or Monday 7th May (apart from Liverpool v Chelsea, which is postponed due to Liverpool being in the Cup Final).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_FA_Cup_Final

6 million maybe.

ken

It will be interesting to see if the viewing public's perception of the race changes significantly in view of the two deaths this year, all the more shocking when one was the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner from only four weeks ago.

I agree they're the best part of the American one imo, it's the live shows where I start to lose interest, especially this year, but that could be down to some poor decisions by the coaches.

Er - why would The Voice have a positive knock-on for TXF?

Surely the opposite is more likely: would-be contestants for TXF don't apply because they'd prefer to do The Voice next year? More anxiety for Cowell ... hopefully.

Am I correct in thinking the BBC signed a two-year deal for The Voice? If so, and it maintains its current momentum, negotiations for what happens after that could be interesting - especially if Sky is waiting in the wings ...

The Voice is an absolute machine for BBC1.

It is just fantastic and I'm so glad that the ratings are proving that.

BGT did well too but Cowell is probably wishing he had The Voice now.

Well done to The Voice.

Theres a danger as well that if The Voice is seen to create artists who are well...artistic and reflect something of themselves - that X Factor will simply become well...with want of a better word - 'uncool'.

Both shows pick people to go through, just auditioning for The Voice you know you won't be second rate to a 'freak' act.
Which could hurt people just choosing to audition for X Factor as oppose to 'stealing' people who would otherwise go through on X Factor.

But this to me depends on the Live rounds and if The Voice appears to create an artist who is not just successful but unlike X Factor appears to be saying/doing something important through their singing.

Otherwise, I doubt ITV will worry too much. The Voice gets people who are probably warned against going on X Factor; whilst X Factor gets more people off the street. Two very different shows in terms of contestants.

Its hard to see where any top class live football is going to come from though. On the one hand there is SKY with its enormous financial muscle and on the other ITV which makes football its number one priority with all its other forays into sport almost exclusively on ITV4. The litmus test for live football will be the next round of England/FA Cup rights. If the BBC dont bother or are half hearted then its anyones guess when there will be any domestic live football on the BBC again.

SKY have have hardly ever averaged over 3 million viewers for anything its ever shown, so it would be hard to imagine that being favourable to the makers.
If I were the Beeb i would be in negotiations now.

As for the X Factor, well it has renewed the buzz for talent shows- and although BGT is established The Voice is aiding it by putting a huge audience on a plate.