The BBC's old PR man Sam Hodges isn't very happy on Twitter:

It does, yeah. Makes me wonder where ITV figures into this (if at all).

Yes, but Lord Sugar will also know that as a contractor in business you don't upset one of your biggest clients....Short-term gain maybe by squeezing a few quid more out of the format with C4, but one would imagine that they may struggle to get future commissions from the BBC....

What will the ITV position on this be? The question will doubtlessly be asked.

Lygo is a clever man, I'm sure he'll find some way to make the whole thing slightly less embarrassing for everyone.

What a day. I need a lie down I think!

I don't think ITV bid at all. ITV have TVUK. evin Lygo said he's be more interested in EastEnders than GBBO.

I think eveb he knows GBBo ould no fit on ITV, and I suspect ITV bosses thought poaching TVUK and GBBO so close to each other would cause too much backlash for ITV.

You only have to look at the comments on here and the hate for ITV when people thought it would go to them. Knee jerk reaction.

Did Channel 4 really bid more than the BBC? I find that astonishing.

ITV can't have wanted it that much.

I am gutted for the BBC, but it has been an exciting day at the same time - fascinated what will happen with Channel 4 now and how it'll do for them. And how the BBC will look to replace the show.

Has there ever been a night like this on here? Actually, not just on here but all over the Internet? What a night!

I'm sure we'll be back to X Factor vs. Strictly in due course

It would not surprise me that in three years time The Great British Bake Off will be only getting 2-4m and then Sky will swoop in and get the rights like with the Formula 1

Patrick Foster reporting ITV and Netflix both offered more than C4. C4 are paying a massive £25m per year (surely the BBC couldn't justify that).

He also says there will be FORTY hours of GBBO and GBBO variants each year. In other words, virtually all year round. Seriously milking it.

https://twitter.com/suttonnick/status/775436373209845764

If they don't enforce the clause what was the point in having it in the first place? And as someone else said presumably they paid extra for it. They have every right to enforce it and I hope they do. C4/Love would bleat but any backlash against the BBC is unlikely to outweigh the satisfaction they will feel at inconveniencing greedy Love.

The BBC can pull its bloody finger out.
they are acting like some frugal old Auntie who's got a few million stashed away
utterly paralysed in daring to bid for something in case the Government frowns on them.

Losing the voice fair enough but losing this when its so popular.. new 3 year deal
with the ratings really stonking its clear the production company wanted more money
at this rate the BBC is going to lose so many shows that aren't in house made.

I'm sure he'll talk about it before too long. I'd be fascinated to know if they definitely bid and if so how much they wanted it. The wording suggests they weren't in contention, but whether that's because they didn't bid or just ruled themselves out a while ago is uncertain.

Part of me thinks they'd have been stupid not to bid, it's a huge show and even if it lost a chunk of its audience could have done a lot for them.

But then they may well have realised it wouldn't be a great fit for the channel and may have been aware of the backlash that would have come with taking it. Particularly as this would have been the second BBC hit they'd have nicked in the space of a year. Bake Lff gets bigger ratings for The Voice although it doesn't cover anywhere near as much airtime so The Voice was probably a bigger deal for them (particularly with it feeling like a natural fit for them).

Fascinating stuff. I'd love to know what they think of it all. Sky as well, who it seems were interested but ruled out.

That'll be the death of it then

I wonder if those happy to see it on Ch4 would be pleased with this news?

Ch4 will drive it into the ground.

ITV may have been less preferred, but like with IAC I bet they would have kept it 1 series a year, with 10episodes and only Bake-Off Extra Slice as spin off.

Ch4 will milk it for all its worth.

Lol they can't win - they'd then have the usual whingers moaning about wasting our license fee money unnecessarily .....

Surely that's more than one regular series a year? Probably two and the rest specials? I can't imagine they're expecting to keep the talent if that's the case.

Not according to Patrick Foster - Bake Off and it's spin offs are seemingly going to air for 40 hours a year. If that is the case they're going to burn it out quicker than Big Brother! There's only so many soggy bottom's you can see before it becomes repetitive.

Fair points, all of them.

Born Risky was always going to come back to haunt them. It already has many times. I had so many issues with that campaign anyway- so pretentious and annoying.

Hunt has done the best thing for the channel in my view, even if it proves unpopular in some quarters. They've been widely praised for their recent progress in a lot of areas but ratings wise they still lack that big noisy show. Gogglebox is a unique kind of hit for them but beyond that they are a bit lacking. Bake Off takes them to the next level and catapults them into the big league. ITV should be very worried because we saw during the Big Brother years what one big noisy show can do for a channel like C4, and although Bake Off is only a once a week thing there's the spinoffs and potentially other similar shows like the Pottery Throwdown as well to factor in, so the potential is absolutely massive if done right.

It's brave in as much as they are spending a lot of money and they have to handle it carefully given the love for the programme and try to minimise any backlash around things like adverts to avoid damaging C4's reputation and on top of that the risk of hurting their relationship with other indies. So there's a lot of risks there. But letting it go elsewhere would have hurt C4, especially as it would not have been as good a fit for ITV/C5/Sky so hard for them to watch from the sidelines and whilst championing new ideas is all well and good, it's a very slow process at times. They are better placed to find those 5m homegrown hits with Bake Off around than they are at the moment.

40?! FOURTY HOURS?! 2 series a year like American stuff with Creme in the middle?! What on earth?!

Don't forget there is

=> main show
=> Extra Slice
=> Sport / Comic Relief
=> kids edition (Junior)
=> Crème de la Crème

Easy to see how that may amount to 40 hours. Junior Bake Off was on CBBC, but they may now flesh it out on Channel 4 and place it on E4 or something.

Is Pottery Throw Down and Sewing Bee included in the Bake Off contract, or are they separate?

Oh christ. 40 hours is a lot. It mentions the professional series as well, so that's moving too. Right now the BBC does 27 hours of Bake Off per year so it's a rise, but I'd imagine longer episodes to accommodate the ads will cover some of that. Still means there's going to be more of it. I'd have thought the professional series will be much more like the main show than Creme De La Creme was.

That £25m figure works out at £625,000 per hour across 40 hours of content. For the main show that seems pretty good, but the rest isn't worth that (bear in mind that 27 hours includes An Extra Slice and Creme De La Creme) so I'd imagine it works out as more than that for the main show and less for the spin-offs.

Oh gawd! *rolleyes*

Trying to break it down as it stands atm

- Main Show= 10 Hours
- Extra Slice= 10x30- 5 hours
-Sport/Comic Relief- 4 x 1 hour
Creme De La Creme- 6 x 1hr
Christmas Bake Off- 2 x 1hr

That's still only 27 hours with all that- So more Celeb Specials and definitely 2 series a year if the 40 hours is right. Wow, it's a gigantic contract in much the same way as ITV nicked The Voice in promising more hours- Huge, huge risk by 4 thought, surely that risks overexposure before we've even started?

Off topic

I'm astonished why GBBO doesn't have its own forum? Why is it just lumped under reality tv whereas it gets more viewers then say xfactor yet that can have its own