You can certainly tell it's the nations biggest show - DS and social media have gone crazy!

Well Sue Perkins retweeted the BBC press statement saying they hoped it would remain on BBC when it was released so I think we know what she might be thinking right now, also I've read none of the 4 were consulted about this change so...

Well, well. What an extraordinary few hours. Thrilled for Channel 4, this could do so much for them. Even if the ratings halve (and I doubt they'll drop that much) it'd still be their biggest hit by miles. It does feel like a pretty good fit for the channel whilst still being able to exploit those commercial opportunities. As I suggested earlier, part of what may have swung it is that the other shows (Sewing Bee, Allotment Challenge, Pottery Throwdown) could fit nicely on the channel as well. I'm not sure if they'll be getting those shows as well but it's be great for them if they are (and a loss for BBC2).

My heart doesn't exactly bleed for the BBC. I don't know whether they've been stubborn, incompetent, arrogant or a mixture but you can't significantly under-value you're biggest hit show from an independent production company and expect them to just suck it up and stick with you because you're the BBC. If rumours are to be believed Love wanted £700,000 per episode for it. I'm sure that's significantly more than they're paying now but to put it into perspective it's no more than you're average hour of drama these days, about the same ballpark as ITV are paying for XF/BGT, not much more than BBC1 were paying per hour of The Voice and less than they're paying for Match of The Day. That doesn't seem an unreasonable request to me and if the BBC weren't prepared to pay anything close to that I don't blame Love for telling them to shove it.

Why would they replace the segment? They can easily make it a 75 minute programme. That's still shorter than SCD and TXF.

For anyone wondering about The Apprentice, this tweet should take you into Lord Sugar's thinking: https://twitter.com/Lord_Sugar/statu...20921255497728

Wonder if this weeks bake off will be boosted by all this?

Throwing it out here, will the Christmas special of Bake Off be shown on Christmas Day?

I can see it now. On at 8pm against Corrie

Love Productions isn't part of Sky. Sky bought a stake in the company (as they have with many others), but it is still an independent company.

There is no Sky representation in the company's management. Sleeping partners, really.

Sue is a massive defender of the BBC but she also loves the show. I feel sorry for her and Mel tonight, they've been rather left in the lurch by whoever is responsible for this.

I would credit Fremantle, who make The Apprentice, with a lot more experience and savvy and therefore knowing which way their bread is buttered.

I know, shocking that none of them have been consulted

You do have to laugh, this thread (and other places) had people ripping into ITV before anything had been said about where it's going. It'll be full of ad breaks, they'll change the tone, get rid of the history bit, stuff it with celebs etc plus the general sentiment of nasty old ITV swooping in and nicking the poor old BBC's show. Now C4 have done exactly the same as ITV were accused of doing, there's no evidence they won't do anything ITV would have done, it'll still have ad breaks and they've announced they're launching it with a celebrity series but you get those same people then saying they're OK with it moving to C4. "I can live with that" etc. Bizarre but very amusing.

I can't fault anything that C4 have done and think the celeb series is a great way of getting around the clause, it's just the hypocrisy that amused me. I do think the show itself is a much better fit for C4 than ITV (although I'm sure ITV would have been more than happy to have it) and I'm sure it's going to do wonders for them.

As for ITV, I would imagine they did put a bid in so are probably a bit sore about losing out. They've definitely lost out on what would most likely have been very big for them. In a way they've dodged a bullet around criticisms of it not being the same etc and they'd have been held to the same ratings standards as BBC1 and it would inevitably have gone down so they'd have had a barrage of negative press. C4 on the other hand won't be held to those same standards and it'll probably have an even bigger impact for them. Tonally it feels like a C4 show and not really like an ITV one (in the same way that The Voice very much does feel like it should be an ITV show) so I think for the future of the show, it's long term prospects and long term impact going to C4 was the better move, but I bet there are still certain people who feel rather sore over at ITV!

So it appears that they found out about the move to Channel 4 at the same time as the rest of us! Very shoddy.

Almost definitely, its major major news, and all publicity and all that, It'll be interesting to see how high this series goes now, especially if there's a catch it before it disappears kind of attitude- The Final could be unparalleled, it was adding viewers regardless

Exactly. I'd run it 8pm-9.15pm. That way the show could be exactly the same, just with the ads added in rather than replacing anything and you can whack the rival channels' 8pm and 9pm offerings, whilst offering up a massive lead-in to something at 9.15pm that is in a great position as everything else is midway through, so viewers are maybe more likely to stick with C4.

This being C4 and their tendency to run things into the ground, I wouldn't be surprised to see 90 minute episodes before long, plus possibly more weeks and more celeb editions, but we'll see.


They'll surely follow it. They can snark all they like but it'd be career suicide not to follow it. The only one I could maybe see not doing it is Mary, but even then I wouldn't be surprised if she does move with it.

Patrick Foster ‏@patrickfoster2
Kudos to C4 for rapid Bake Off turnaround. BBC showdown with Love Productions ended just after 4pm. Love lot were straight in taxi to C4.

The speed of it!

Probably wise given the wording of the BBC statement. They still thought there was a chance of Love backtracking at that point. C4 had to eliminate that possibility quickly and seal the deal.

C4 has given up on sport. It lost the rights to cricket but picked up racing. It lost those rights but picked up F1. It's now lost F1 so has picked up GBBO.

The show will do fine on there. It'll consolidate to 8m. It's a reality show, it is perfect for C4.

As for the talent, I suspect they'll all switch to C4. Not only will their salary go up, their commercial endorsements possibilities will grow too. This is life-changing money for them and their children and grandchildren. Good luck to them.

As for ITV, they'll worry now that C4 is set to become a fully fledged commercial broadcasting rival - probably sold off to a massive media corporation. Disney might fancy it.

The good news for itv is that they now know millions will refuse to watch Marple and Poirot on the BBC in protest of the way itv have been treated.

Yes there has some kind of perspective at the BBC in not paying silly money, but GBBO is the biggest show on tv, if the BBC were playing hardball on the basis of different genre being allocated different limits then frankly they don't deserve to keep the show. As I said before-questions for the BBC to answer here.

The thing is that we don't know how much financial pressure the BBC is under.

The 2017/21 LF settlement was done after the 2015 General Election and shortly afterwards in November 2015 the BBC issued the following press release (see link below) which said:

"We will announce how the remaining £550 million savings to be met by 2021/22 will be made in the spring. These are likely to include broad service and major structural changes to how the BBC works and fulfils its mission to inform, educate, and entertain."

Now to my knowledge the above statement has still not actually been issued. (There has been some communication re News savings but nothing regarding savings across the BBC as a whole).

Now there are numerous possible reasons why this might be - eg it may be taking longer to make decisions than expected etc.

But it's entirely possible that if Love Productions asked for a big fee increase that the BBC felt that it was simply out of the question to agree to pay such an increase at the same time as very large savings indeed are going to have to be made across the BBC as a whole.

And of course any increase in what was paid to Love Productions would then mean that an equivalent additional amount has to be cut elsewhere.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lat...15/bbc-savings

Bit more background: https://twitter.com/patrickfoster2

- BBC meeting with Love Productions ended at 16:00 today
- Love Productions headed straight to Channel 4 HQ to sign deal

I read a tweet (from someone, but can't remember who, definitely on one of the broadsheets) that ITV did not bid (or were not approached)

I don't doubt the noises they made about wanting it to remain with the BBC - particularly from Mary and Paul - were taken into consideration. Presumably C4 must be confident they'll keep hold of the four.

Come on Derek, they own 70%, that's hardly a sleeping partner.
You really think that Sky just 'let them get on with it" ?

I wouldn't be surprised if offers were made a few years ago for The Apprentice, but I can't imagine anyone swooping in now with a megabucks offer, it isn't as big as it used to be,


I honestly don't think it'd do that well. The standalone editions featuring celebs in the past haven't got anything like the numbers the regular editions have and I don't imagine this would either. Given how low Christmas Day overnights are these days I imagine it'd do around 6m and be quite close between it and Corrie. I wouldn't run it on Christmas Day, I'd save it for elsewhere (where I still don't think it'd match the main series, but it'd do 7m or so I reckon). It isn't part of the regular competition and it'll be a couple of months since the series ended, so whilst I'm sure they'll be high rates, they won't match the actual show. It's like when ITV did that Dancing on Ice special years ago which got about 5m (when the main series was doing 8/9m). Obviously ITV tends to rate lower on Christmas Day anyway but still.

I thought business was all about selling and maximising profits?

You couldn't make this stuff up about the majority of posters tonight on this thread.

The absolute outrage that ITV had stolen the golden show, "they're going to ruin it" "not watching ever again" "greedy ITV" "all the adverts, product placement, sponsors", jumping to assumptions as per usual... AND THEN when it's announced C4 have poached it "oh that's fine then, I'll still watch".