On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 1:53 PM, Steve Williams <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > On Wednesday, 14 September 2016 00:43:42 UTC+1, Adam Bowie wrote: >> >> The biggest thing here is that Channel 4 seemed to have bought the format >> without securing the talent. As Mark mentions above the two presenters have >> announced they're quitting, and the pressure will be on to see what the two >> judges, Paul and Mary, do. Without the talent, C4 has basically bought a >> large tent in a field, and I would suspect will really struggle to recoup >> its investment. Oddly enough, which network airs a show is a *big thing* in >> the UK, and the production company are probably seen as really greedy by >> the public at large for not doing a deal with the BBC. >> > > The other issue with this is that Channel 4 are obliged by law to > innovate. It's clearly stated in their remit - > http://www.channel4.com/info/corporate/about/channel-4s-remit - to wit, > "Our overall role is to champion innovation in TV, film & digital – > nurturing and growing new ideas, formats, views and voices, faces, talent, > audiences and production companies." Poaching the most popular show on > British TV for 25 million pounds would seem somewhat at odds with that, and > Michael Grade - former CEO of Channel Four, of course - has been in the > media pointing out that, at a time when C4 are running a campaign to avoid > privatisation, this is the worst thing they could have done. > > One great example of this from the past came in the eighties where Thames > poached Dallas from the BBC, after offering the distributors a huge amount > of money. This was a huge controversy because it breached the gentleman's > agreement that the networks didn't get involved in bidding wars for each > other's programmes, to stop costs spiralling out of control, and even the > rest of the ITV network, who weren't consulted about it, said Thames had > behaved in a shoddy and underhand manner. In the end Thames had to > humiliatingly give them back, and the CEO of Thames resigned. > > Someone I follow on Twitter was suggesting putting a bet on the next > series of Bake Off being on BBC1. Given how badly this is going so far, I > would endorse that. > > (BTW, I do work for the BBC. But not a part that has anything to do with > this.) > > The other really interesting thing is the future of Channel 4 as a whole. The previous Culture Secretary (who seemed to dislike UK television quite a lot), was considering plans to privatise Channel 4. If that happened, there'd be a fair to middling chance that a US company might come in and buy the network. Channel 5 is owned by Viacom after all. [Side question: Is it still the case that a British company wouldn't be allowed by law to buy a US network, even if there was one big enough to swallow a network up? Murdoch became an "American" just to buy Fox didn't he?] It's not clear that privatisation - or partial privatisation is completely off the cards. And Channel 4 is behaving a little less like an alternative channel as its remit noted above says it should be. Buying Bake Off is just one part of it. They also recently aired a series called Naked Attractions in which, well, I'll let you Google it. Just lets say that unlike Naked Dating or Naked and Afraid, there were close-ups and absolutely no pixelation or blurring whatsoever. A lot of UK media commentators were surprised that they aired this while their future is in the balance. Only today, an editorial in The Sun (proprietor: R Murdoch) calls for the channel's privatisation off the back of this. Channel 4 is unique in the UK broadcasting sector in that it has a need to be challenging, is free to air, and is very supportive of minority groups. It would be stupid if something like this wrecked part of the British broadcast ecology. Right - I'll get off my soapbox now... -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
