Watching people perform, and win a £1 million recording contract, is way more interesting & discussable than watching someone cook a muffin.

Well you've asked it about 4 times already, nobody else is interested as this story isn't about ITV at all, I know everything in the ratings thread including the weather forecast is immediately linked to how it effects ITV but even so.

ITV didn't have GBBO yesterday and they still don't have it today, and it's no longer on the BBC, their main rival at least in ratings terms, and they haven't spent a penny. Plus they don't have to deal with massive amounts of backlash and endless negative reports when the ratings come in and they are invariably lower than what it got on the BBC. It's only one slot a week, ITV will still beat Channel 4 in pretty much every other slot.

If I was you I'd be more concerned about how it effects Channel 5. Channel 4 getting GBBO means they will pull even further ahead of Channel 5 leaving them in an even more distant fifth place competing with ITV2 airing an increasingly tired Big Brother and programmes about benefits and cat videos.


I'm not surprised by this, Channel 4 have lots of form in this area. All their hit shows tend to appear in the autumn, and then in the winter, and then again in the spring. Are people still ok with it moving to Channel 4 rather than ITV?

That isn't that extreme.

This year the BBC have already got at least 35 hours out of it:
Main show (10x60) - 10 hours
Extra Slice (10x30) - 5 hours
Sewing Bee (8x60) - 8 hours
Sport Relief Bake Off (4x60) - 4 hours
Creme de la Creme (8x60) - 8 hours
Junior Bake Off (?x25) - probably about 3 hours

Making Extra Slice 60 minutes rather than 30 would go virtually unnoticed and that's already over 40 hours 'squeezed' out of the contract without even touching the main show's length etc. Not that extreme at all.
Last edited by Zac Quinn : 12-09-2016 at 22:28

Didn't you say earlier before C4 was announced that you hoped ITV didn't get it as it wouldn't work? Quite a lot of backtracking going on tonight!

As for the number of hours, it's not exactly surprising news is it? Like it or not this is how C4 operate, they never shy away from doing lots of hours of their big shows and generally it doesn't do them any obvious harm.

Obviously Bake Off is a much bigger beast and they have to be careful, but until we know how that 40 hours is going to be split it's a bit difficult to say it's overkill IMO.

Thank goodness it didn't go to Netflix - now that would be something to be sad about, and I say that as a Netflix subscriber since day 1 in the UK.

If they up the main show to 75 minutes, taking in ads without losing any of the product, that would add an additional two and half hours to a ten show series (total 29.5 hours). Then do the same with the Charity shows which, if they stick to four, means a further hour (30.5 hours). Same with Creme De La Creme which would add a further 90 minutes (32 hours) and the Christmas additions (32.5 hours). Junior Bake Off hasn't been mentioned there either - six episodes of that would equal a further six and a half hours (39)... suddenly we're almost there.

Creme De La Creme could be moved across to More Four as they may consider it a better fit there. Junior Bake Off could easily air in the pre-6pm slot they're struggling with to take on the quiz shows though it's hardly a Come Dine With Me format which they could air daily. I'm sure the main show, Extra Slice and the charity shows will remain on Channel 4.

I doubt C4 will bother with the junior edition. That's a good fit for CBBC but Channel 4 don't have a kids channel.

It looks like we're getting 2 series of the main show per year if the 40 hours thing is right. Given C4's overexposure of Gogglebox this doesn't surprise me.

Channel 4 grabbing bake off, is horrendous for channel 5. Oh dear. Itv 2 will probably overtake it at this rate.

Oh can you imagine like their other popular format CDWM

I can't believe it's gone to Channel 4. I don't see much difference between it going there and ITV to be honest. Typical that the first Channel 4 series is a celebrity variant.

Also wonder if Paul, Mary, Sue and Mel will all make the jump with it considering they were said to be against the ITV move.

It's a BBC show through and through, shame it's going from there.

Has this thread ever been so busy? Kinda love it

Daily mirror front page saying channel 4 paid 75 million for bake off

The report on the Ten said that the BBC have lost other shows recently, they lost Top Gear to Amazon. I know what they meant, but that's not quite right.

They are going to be asking the question how the BBC let GBBO slip through their fingers on Newsnight in a bit.

Now on BBC Two, 11pm in Scotland.

Yes, £25m per year and it's a three-year contract.

3 Year Contract, £25m a year- £625,000 per episode- Yet, it tallies- No way in a million years could the Beeb have afforded that though without some backlash, they dropped the Voice at £11m a year, Love Productions were asking double that and then some- It's a shame, but I guess money talks- The quote from Love Productions about it not being about the money is funny now though :P

Once the dust settles, I'm sure they'll move across with it. There's really no reason for them not to - they're unlikely to lose the side projects they maintain on the BBC and for all of them it's clearly the biggest TV project they'll ever be involved in. I suppose Mary might decide she doesn't fancy doing so much TV any more and back away, but I can't see why the others would turn down what would be a mammoth pay check to just continue as they are.

Certainly, Channel 4 must be confident of it - I certainly wouldn't have sunk that kind of money into the show unless I was pretty confident of it retaining its key players.

If Mary Berry and Mel and Sue wont go to Channel 4 (Hollywood isn't popular with fans of the show anyway, he's no draw to be frank) then Channel 4 will have bought a dud. Here's hoping

Nothing like a bombshell announcement to get this thread active again.

Is a nice distraction though from the relentless TXF vs SCD saga...

For those not aware, Newsnight is about to interview ex BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey about the loss of GBBO.

I must admit, I do think Love Productions have been incredibly stupid. Yes, they've got a 3 year contract and a nice big pay cheque, but is it worth it?

Like Wossy found out, going to commercial TV just doesn't work a lot of the time. People have got used to the show being a certain way, and it's going to be difficult to change their mind on that. If they lose all the talent, it's going to be D.O.A.

Also, I think Love Productions have shot themselves in the foot re: BBC. They're not going to get any more commissions off them, and considering the BBC has the most channels outside of Sky, which is a lot of potential revenue down the pan for them. The smart thing to do would've been to let Bake Off stay on BBC but ask for a larger share of the profits, which I'm sure the BBC would've been open to.

Does anyone else think Channel 4 have paid too much? I'm pretty sure Bake Off is at its peak now and after (potentially) nearly 2 years off air until they can get another amateur series going, the ratings will definitely be lower - people will have found a new show.

The same Daily Mirror that said it was staying on the Beeb? Ah those journos...

More from Patrick Foster:

Understand BBC were told they would need to pay £25m a year to hold on to Bake Off - 4x the current rate. They offered to double to ~£12.5m

I did. And I still remain that way. I'm glad ITV didn't get it, because as I said before it wouldn't fit with the channel, and the backlash would be greater if it moved to ITV.

I'm sorry, but GBBO may be a popular show, but it is not worth the BBC forking out £25 million per year for. It is obviously fairly cheap to make and that would mean overall, that is more expensive than SCD and Doctor Who! I'd say it is Love Productions that have severely over-valued it rather than the BBC under-valuing it.

It should be on the verge of it for ITV, though. Bake Off on the BBC didn't really do ITV any harm. They scheduled some tacky LE against it, got low ratings, and sucked it up, but now they face the prospect of lucrative pre-Christmas advertising revenues being lost to C4. Next year, it might only be a short celebrity series, but the avarice of Love and Channel 4 will probably see a full series (filmed in 2018) air in an autumn slot in 2018, on the back of another full series (filmed in 2017) airing in early 2018.

And, each show will need a longer slot, so it'll screw over the ratings for two of ITV's primetime slots: 8pm and 9pm.

ITV need a strategy to sabotage the ratings for the launch, and a bit of forward planning wouldn't do Channel 5 any harm, either. Bake Off from 8pm -9.30pm would mess up a valuable 9pm slot for them.

I admire your publicly positive outlook on this but I detect beneath the surface more concern than you are letting on. ITV were favourites to get Bake Off, put a generous bid in, and still failed. I don't think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill to point out the calamitous nature of this from their perspective.

I find it absolutely comical your suggestion that ITV won't be bothered that their main commercial rival has taken a show which will make them much more attractive to advertisers, denying them a great opportunity in the process, just because it means the BBC has one less hit show than before.

The BBC will always have huge shows like Bake Off around, that's a given. C4 strengthening up ahead of a potential sale to any number of big companies with deep pockets should worry ITV a lot more than how many entries the BBC has on the ratings chart of the year compared to them.


C5 will be affected too, no doubt. Less so than ITV admittedly, but it's not ideal for them either.

It'll force them to raise their game which is no bad thing at all - that means less benefits and cat videos I suspect - also bad for ITV as we know from ratings in the past week they are well placed to compete with them in factual. They already have shows that work opposite Bake Off and whilst C4 will likely strengthen up around it, C5's share of viewing has proved very resilient during some difficult times before whereas ITV has shown itself to be increasingly vulnerable at times, particularly midweek and off peak in weekends.

Plus C4 could push more into areas like drama around Bake Off, which is likely to affect ITV more than C5 which tends to favour factual in peak. Indeed Bake Off could pave the way for a change in strategy which sees C4 less reliant on factual which in turn could be good news for C5 in that respect.

Plenty of speculation in all of that, but some fair assumptions I think.