Major channels say no to Big Brother

chris

Channel Five, BSkyB and ITV2 have ruled out bidding for Big Brother when it becomes available in 2011, despite media buying agency executives arguing that the reality format's appeal to the key youth audience still makes it a valuable show for advertisers.

Richard Woolfe, the channel controller at Five, said the show did not fit with the "new direction" that the broadcaster was looking to take.

"Big Brother has been an amazing phenomenon but, in terms of the new direction Five is taking, we are looking for big original ideas," Woolfe added. "Big Brother now needs to be off our screens for a few years before anyone can consider reinventing it and bringing it back."

BSkyB and ITV are also understood not to have any interest in acquiring the series after Big Brother 11 is broadcast by Channel 4 next summer – when producer Endemol will be free to take the format to other networks.

"We talk to Endemol all the time but aren't discussing Big Brother with them," said Stuart Murphy, the controller of Sky1.

Media buying agency executives believe that the decline in Big Brother's audience has been overplayed because viewing figures in the low millions with a strong youth base still make it an extremely valuable programme for broadcasters other than Channel 4 to consider.

In addition, Channel 4 was forced into paying a high price in a £180m three-year deal in 2006 because ITV emerged as a rival bidder when the show was still performing strongly.

"Any channel that is aspiring for a younger profile should currently be thinking about Big Brother, although there are factors and baggage to consider such as airtime space and image," said Adam Turner, broadcast director at media agency PHD.

"There is a hang-up about its historically large audiences but in reality, for satellite channels, the show still does good valuable numbers."

Turner suggested that cable and satellite channel Living, which has reality TV shows such as America's Next Top Model, could also provide a good fit for the show.

An equally key question for media buying agencies is how Channel 4 now fills the void in its schedule with programming of value to advertisers.

Big Brother's historically large and valuable audience has been a disproportionately critical element in Channel 4's negotiations with media agencies to secure advertising budgets across all the broadcaster's programming throughout the year.

The show's big audience in the summer, particularly the 16- to 34-year-old demographic, significantly boosts the amount of valuable airtime Channel 4 has to sell to advertisers. This increase in the supply of ad inventory brings down the price for advertisers over summer and makes up for often relatively higher priced ads in shows at other times of the year that do not have such large audiences.

"Big Brother hides a multitude of sins. Big Brother has provided fantastic media value for advertisers. The question going forward from an [ad] selling point of view how Channel 4 makes the pricing attractive to advertisers over the course of a year," said Chris Locke, trading director at media agency Starcom.

"This will be the big question for September and October next year," Locke added, referring to the beginning of the annual trading season between TV sales houses and media agencies which determine the lion's share of ad spend by advertisers for the following calendar year.


Source:MediaGuardian

Channel Hopper

They could simply stream BB on the net as a podcast to those signing up to it.

Job done.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"