There are moments to be soft and emotional – and moments to count the cash in the register. Time to open the oven and pull out that great, steaming Bake Off controversy. Should Channel 4 have spent £75m to buy the show? Should the BBC have fought harder to keep it? Is this a tale of national tragedy and viewing lives ruined – by a marquee plonked on a stately home lawn?
The obvious thing, especially if you wish to snipe at C4, is to purse lips, deplore this super-commercial wheeze and talk public service remits – particularly as familiar players on the Bake Off menu stay loyal to Auntie. But it’s perfectly possible to flip that coin; indeed rather a big stack of coins.
Here’s a mature, hugely popular show topping 10 million viewers a throw. The co-creators who make and devised it have fallen out terminally with the BBC. When negotiations for contract renewal break down – and only after the deed is done – the Bake Off format is up for grabs and bids. Here are ITV, Sky, Discovery et al waiting in line. But C4 is the master bakers’ new home of first choice. Deal or no deal? Expensive transfer done.
Of course there are snags. There always are. Maybe Mary and Paul themselves won’t switch. Maybe the press will have a mocking field day as ratings halve. But remember that audiences of 5 million week after week would be a great commercial-plus-visibility result for Four: and that the Bake Off format franchise, without Mary and Paul, flourishes now in 23 countries around the globe. This isn’t, in short, some cuddly little show that touches a nation’s heart. This is very big business. So when, pray, did we decide that channels which live by ads, by profit and loss, are businesses that the taxpayer-owners will still love if they slither into loss?
