★★★★★ 0/5

ITV poaches The Voice UK from BBC

"We always said we wouldn’t get into a bidding war or pay inflated prices to keep the show," says BBC.

4
Leave a comment

1364007397561

The next season of The Voice UK will be the last on the BBC after rival broadcaster ITV successfully outbid for the rights.

In a statement the BBC said, “The BBC is incredibly proud of The Voice, but the fifth series which starts in January will be our last. We always said we wouldn’t get into a bidding war or pay inflated prices to keep the show, and it’s testament to how the BBC has built the programme up – and established it into a mainstay of the Saturday night schedule – that another broadcaster has poached it.”

In recent weeks there has been comment about format shows that don’t fit with a public broadcaster and use of public monies.

The fifth series began filming in September, with singers Boy George and Paloma Faith, replacing Tom Jones and Rita Ora on the judging panel.

ITV already has Britain’s Got Talent, and The X Factor but could now block out its calendar with talent shows on Saturday nights.

The new deal with ITV has not been finalised, but an announcement is expected imminently.

4 Responses

  1. Saturday Night has always been the night for those sort of shows on British Television in the past there used to be The Morecambe & Wise Show – The Rolf Harris Show & The Val Doonican Show among others including Talent Show Opportunity Knocks which was the first show to have viewers ring up and vote

    1. It’s partly down to history too. Initially the ITV regions were split into weekday and weekend franchises, so the weekend franchises had to make their three nights count. That soon only applied to London but LWT dominated weekend TV entertainment from the late 60s until the turn of the century.

Leave a Reply