However that runs contrary to C4's remit to be " innovative, experimental and distinctive". **

Buying such a programme, ratings juggernaut or not, flies in the face of all of those requirements. Thet are certainly not being innovative by buying in a proven winner. They are not being experimental by doing so. And distinctive? Well, seeing as the BBC already had the programme, they are not doing anything that is distinctive.

And it is certainly not doing this:

"champion innovation in TV, film & digital – nurturing and growing new ideas, formats, views and voices, faces, talent, audiences and production companies."


** http://www.channel4.com/info/corpora...annel-4s-remit

Why is GBBO successful?

1. It is on the ad-free, prime-time BBC One
2.It's content and tone is very British, very BBC
3.The contestants are 'normal' and 'natural'
4.It is non-sensational, essentially easy watching
5.The roles Mel and Sue and Paul and Mary play

They could call it "Bakeaway"

They could get Brian Cant to sing the theme tune. "Bee Ayy Kee Eee...Bakeawayaway-awayway-awayaway-bakeaway-awayway bakeaway..."

I think its a goer...

I don't get it.. Some time ago you were convinced that Top Gear would carry on just fine with a new set of presenters. So OK, that didn't exactly work out. Perhaps C4 will have better luck?

You also seem very disappointed that licence payer's money will no longer be going to a subsidiary of the Anti-Beeb, and C4 will be paying instead.

Surely you should be rejoicing at the prospect of filling the 30hr hole with something new, original and perhaps even from the Bbc? Show the Indies who really makes great TV..

Well, yes. But enough about Top Gear.. What do you think C4 will do with Bake Off?

BBC didn't buy the Top Gear format without the presenters. The BBC bought the format, but before thinking of an adequate post-CHM strategy, Clarkson's role as a BBC employee become untenable. It was, admittedly, an error for the BBC to not have a proper plan in place for post-CHM Top Gear, given that they had rights to the format and I am not claiming that they made a success of the reboot this year.

But it is not analogous to C4 *purchasing* GBBO format without the talent secured.

jElliED, Clarkson had to go and you like the rest of us know why. It's no good you attempting to say otherwise.

Furthermore, the events are totally different.

Yep. But I do think a comparison can be made in terms of them having the format but not the "talent".

Was GBBO successful because of the format or because of the talent?
Was Top Gear successful because of the format or because of the talent?

It is a similar situation though the events leading up to it are starkly different.

It's both isn't it. You need the format and you need the talent.

Right.

And like the BBC with Top Gear. C4 have the format but not the talent.

Maybe it will be a success if they strike lucky with whomever they choose to replace the current lot. But it's a gamble in my view.

...but the situations were/are totally different. With one presenter, there were a whole lot of historical 'issues' climaxing in said presenter assaulting a producer. Said presenter had to go forcing the situation we now find ourselves in. The other was simply down to the greed of the producers.

Content changing channels is a huge gamble as viewers associate a particular show with a particular broadcaster/channel.

You're skirting the issue again. The end result is the same. They have the format but not the talent. The same situation the BBC found itself in with Top Gear. They only have half of the successful equation. How they ended up in that situation isn't relevant to the comparison.

Well...except that Top Gear isn't changing channels/networks. A show which leaves the BBC for anywhere else becomes a totally different show.

Are you deliberately being dense?

The point is that they have the format but not the talent. That's the reason people are making the comparison. That it's on a different network is a separate, but I agree with you, equally challenging problem. But the reason for the comparison to Top Gear is that they have the format and not the talent. How are you not understanding that?

I don't particularly appreciate being referred to as 'dense'. I am a highly educated person.

The Grand Tour will be Top Gear in all but name except, according to early viewings, far, far better.

Top Gear and The Great British Bake off is entirely different. With Top Gear the ex presenters had to leave but it still stayed on BBC 1. With the Great British Bake off another Channel bid more for the rights and the talent left, if LP had stayed with the BBC then Mel/Sue and Possibly Mary/Paul would have stayed and it would have carried on like normal.

The Great British Bake off has been all but destroyed in a matter of days

Again. Those are the causes not the effect.

The effect is they have the format but not the talent. Which is a very similar situation which is why people are making the comparison.

Fully agree, C4 have broken their remit on this, and have brought their own privitisation a lot closer now, making them more like ITV, & 5.

Absolutely. What's happened to Bake Off was totally unnecessary, motivated by greed only.

And nothing at all to do with how the BBC had soured the relationship with Love Productions by repeatedly ripping off their formats and antagonising them in other ways.

Right.

Do you want to just read the tabloids and try to accept Love Productions poor defence.

And GBBO is Masterchef in a tent, another rip off?

Simon Cowell ripped off Pop Idol and Opportunity knocks.

Did Love Productions " copyright " - all their so called ideas.

So Love Productions have all " hobbies" on exclusive contracts like paintings?

Yup. Clarkson & Co's contracts were up for renewal not long after flogging Bedder 6 to the Bbc. The stars popped over to Amazon for some dosh leaving Aunty with an empty tent.. I mean hanger. This time, the vehicle's run away from the Bbc leaving the star's contracts up for renewal. C4 can potentially start off their run with a freshly baked team.

How sweet.. However, unlike the Bbc.. I can write NATO and NASA correctly..


Both were top shows. Both lost their presenters. One failed miserably in it's new, improved version. Will C4's do the same? If it doesn't, what might that say about the abilities of the producers?

Masterchef is a quite different format. (And the revamped Masterchef is different again, and, what is more, is another format which the BBC does not own.)

If Masterchef and GBBO are the same, why did the BBC pay Love Productions for GBBO? Why would they waste licence fee payer's money on something which they already had the rights to, if they are, as you wrongly claim, the same thing?


Ideas and works are automatically copyrighted, and yes, they own the rights to their original creative intellectual property. That's why the GBBO format is sold around the world (by BBC Worldwide no less) - it is a marketable, valuable, distinct and legally protected format.


No, because the copyright is not "a show about hobbies" but in all the key elements which make a format legally distinct and protectable. The challenges, the process and method of eliminations, etc.

Remember, if someone copied a BBC format, they'd be the first at the door with their lawyers. All companies are entitled to the protection of copyright, not just your favourites.