Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are poised to sign a new £30m three-year “golden handcuffs” contract with ITV, as the broadcaster tries to lock in its biggest names.
The hugely popular duo are set to receive about a 20% boost over the £25m value of their last three-year deal and extend the length of their exclusive relationship with the broadcaster to 18 years.
According to one source close to ITV the prospect of a potential £10bn sale in the next few years, and therefore the need to keep crown jewels such as the Geordie duo locked in, was an incentive to sweeten their new deal by a few million pounds.
And and Dec are critical to the success of ITV, as the broadcaster battles rivals as well as the rise of newer competitors such as Amazon and Netflix.
The pair, both 40, front three of the biggest entertainment shows on TV: Britain’s Got Talent, Saturday Night Takeaway and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.
The new deal is expected to be signed before they head off to film the next series of the celebrity reality survival show in Australia in January. The current deal expires at the end of this year.
“We are not on the dotted line yet but we want to stay and they want us to stay,” said Dec, speaking to the Daily Mirror. “It will have to be signed before we go to Oz because then we will be at the end of the year and we are fairly close.”
An ITV spokeswoman said: “We have a fantastic, long-standing relationship with Ant and Dec, and we are of course keen for that to continue well into the future.
The pair have hinted publicly during negotiations that they might look to leave ITV but now say that a move to Netflix or Amazon is “not necessarily for right now”.
“We are encouraged to see that ITV is close to agreeing a new deal with Ant and Dec, given their importance to ITV,” said Paul Richards, director at Numis Securities. “This is particularly the case following the defection of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond to Amazon, and the dislocation this caused to Top Gear for BBC2.”
After becoming child stars on BBC kids drama Byker Grove, the pair joined ITV in 1998, presenting Saturday morning shows SM:tv Live with Cat Deeley and CD:UK. They signed their first exclusive contract with the broadcaster at the end of 2000.
After a brief stint at the BBC, presenting BBC1 gameshow Friends Like These, they have been mainstays of ITV’s Saturday night schedule ever since, beginning with Simon Fuller’s Pop Idol in 2001.
The deal comes as Simon Cowell closes in on a new three-year deal worth up to £150m to keep the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent on ITV until at least 2019.
The last three-year deal, signed between Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and co-producer FremantleMedia UK, was worth between £140m and £150m.
However, Cowell has come under pressure following a continued slump in ratings in recent years and ITV paying £50m to snatch rival The Voice from the BBC.
Cowell has tried to rejuvenate the show, including bringing back Dermot O’Leary, after the poorly received one-season stint by Olly Murs and Caroline Flack, and bringing back popular judges Louis Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger and Sharon Osbourne.
The first episode of the latest series hit a 10-year low but the show has since improved its audience figures.
“As we have already said, The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent contracts come up for renewal after the latest series air later this year, and we fully intend to continue with both shows into 2017 and beyond,” said a spokeswoman for ITV.
