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Saturday night TV shock after Beeb executives facing savage Tory pressure to make cuts, and ITV could snatch it within days on three-year deal

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BBC AXES The Voice in £55million row as ITV is poised to swoop in and take over
1 COMMENT 22:23, 13 OCT 2015 UPDATED 22:55, 13 OCT 2015
BY NICOLA METHVEN
Saturday night TV shock after Beeb executives facing savage Tory pressure to make cuts, and ITV could snatch it within days on three-year deal

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GettyThe VoiceThe Voice is being AXED by the BBC
ITV is poised to swoop on The Voice after the BBC caved in to Tory pressure and ditched the show.

Senior Beeb executives facing savage Tory cuts are *understood to have been ordered not to get into a bidding war over future series of the Saturday night talent blockbuster, which has cost £55million so far.

They have given up on screening a sixth run in 2017, leaving the door open for rivals ITV to snap up the show, which pulls in eight million viewers.

One senior source revealed: “We’d really like to hang on to the Voice, it’s a brilliant show and viewers love it, but we won’t get into a bidding war with ITV.”

Another insider added: “The BBC has had no choice but to walk away. In the face of all the cuts being made following the licence fee settlement it was impossible to compete.

"It’s a sad day, because it’s a BBC show.”

The corporation came under serious pressure in August when Culture *Secretary John Whittingdale made it clear that he thought the BBC had wasted licence payers’ money competing with ITV for The Voice, which stars Paloma Faith, will-i-am, Boy George and Ricky Wilson.

He said: “The Voice has been very popular, but the fact it was contested between the BBC and ITV, the result was to force up the money paid for it.

"It was going to be on free-to-air so should the BBC get into bidding wars? Is that a good use of the licence payers’ money?”

News of the show’s axe came as BBC director of *television Danny Cohen, who bought the Dutch show to beef up BBC1’s Saturday nights and has long championed it, handed in his notice after eight years.

He is understood to have had a strained relationship with Director-General Tony Hall, who has been leading negotiations over the BBC’s future.

Cohen is expected to move to the US.

ITV swooped in with its offer for The Voice and a deal thought to be three years from 2017 is expected to be signed in days.

Bosses promise to match the £11million-a-series costs.

They will also exploit the brand with spin-off shows, including a version just for children.

ITV bought Talpa Media, the firm behind The Voice, earlier this year.

The BBC said: “We wouldn’t comment on negotiations.”

The cuts it faces mean it may have to *scrap whole *channels or even EastEnders.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/b...on-row-6629862

I'll be shocked if this is true since filming for Series 5 has already started... or maybe that will be the last BBC series? ITV want to get the rights to it and The Voice Kids for CITV too.