It's not a programme I really watch or have much interest in, but can't get my head around why the BBC are being held to ransom by an independent production company. Apparently they were outbid by c.£10m.
The bloody thing is filmed in a tent for gods sake. What's stopping them doing it themselves or commissioning another provider. Even if they have to tweak the name to avoid TM/copyright whatever, so what.
I'm sure I'm being naive and it doesn't work like this, but can't get my head round it.
Can anyone make sense of this and enlighten me?

I guess the intellectual property rights cover the format and principle of the show to the extent that a baking competition with challenges and elimination would not be possible for other broadcasters. I don't know the specifics but there are many successful TV programme formats that could be replicated but aren't - it probably takes pretty significant changes to be possible.

Weeks and weeks of cooking pretty buns. I hope the BBC bid was £1, but I fear it wasn't. Still, I'm sure they'll come up with something almost as exciting.

I think its time the BBC stop holding the the whole country to Ransom! and stop demanding the fee for the tv channels it offers!
Also we are not aloud to watch the BBC channels made for foreign regions!

Yes i hate adverts but the bbc advertises itself an obscene amount!

Yeah scrap the BBC and bring on US style TV to the UK. Pay to view with adverts every 2 minutes.

Think of the positives. On the BBC you have bake-off for almost 1 hour [YAWN]. With adverts every few minutes, that seem to go on for longer than whatever it is you were watching, the new bake-off will technically only be on for 40 minutes - WIN

And for all those Bake-off fans don't worry. F1 has been in the hands of ch4 for a while and that's..... oh hang on a minute

The reason it's gone is that since the law requires the BBC to have a large number of its programmes made by independent companies. Bakeoff was one of them. As a result, the BBC did not own the IP to the programme; the producers did. Which means they can take it anywhere to the highest bidder.

The BBC paid five million for the current series which is a damn sight less than a costume drama like Poldark; they offered fifteen for the next series but the producers wanted twenty-five. So Channel 4 outbid the BBC.

The problem for the producers and for C4 is that two of the presenters don't want to work for anyone other than the BBC, and it is at present unannounced whether the other two want to (they may be under contract for a given number of series) - and without them, basically C4 doesn't have a show... certainly it won't have the fifteen million viewers the last final got.

As my favourite comment on Facebook read; "Congratulations Channel 4, you've paid £25m for a tent, some flour and possibly Paul Hollywood."

Exactly.

Accepting the quota requirements (which I didn't know about so interesting) I still don't get why the BBC wouldn't make sure (on commissioning new stuff) that they kept hold of the IP rights. Suppose it would increase the cost of the bids, but in practice would it really?

I've never even tuned in to it, so just now I had a little 30-second peek. Everything I loathe and despise about television was crammed into the fateful 30 seconds. I just can't stand it.

It's possible, Brian, that you're not the target audience... turns out fifteen million people disagree with your critique.

@Cyborg - I'm not a contract type, but I'd guess that the programme makers are extremely reluctant to let the IP go. They make a programme for the Beeb, and can then sell it as a format as well as in the original version to the overseas markets for $$$.

Classic, Neil!

(neither am I )

............

I quite like it.


There, I said it.

There are worse shows on TV, that's for sure. I watch it occasionally, and this weekend I will make Yorkshires with 8 eggs instead of 1

I can't stand it, but then again I can't stand TV generally apart from a very, very small handful of shows. What I do find interesting is how the BBC wouldn't bid £25m on a programme that's supposedly got 15m viewers, yet it paid a lot more for Match of the Day which, I dare say, has a lot less viewers than that.

Yeah, it really takes the biscuit doesn't it?

Who gives a lemon meringue???

I think somethings cooking!

Given Sky bought 60% of the production company you would suspect the slug hand of Murdoch is stirring the pot somewhere...

Love productions may have sold C4 a lemon but then if you squeeze the pips too much you may have nothing to show for it particularly if some of the core ingredients go missing.