[AJ.]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...5-to-sign-deal

Richard Desmond's Channel 5 is poised to sign a £200m five-year deal to bring back Big Brother following months of tortuous negotiations between his company and the programme's producer, Endemol.

Spoiler:

Richard Desmond's Channel 5 is poised to sign a £200m five-year deal to bring back Big Brother following months of tortuous negotiations between his company and the programme's producer, Endemol.

There were hopes that the deal could have been announced this week, but last-minute legal wrangles continue to delay the announcement of a plan that has been mooted since Desmond bought the channel last summer.

Because of the time taken by the talks, the earliest Big Brother could come back on air is understood to be August. A three-week run of Celebrity Big Brother is expected to be followed by a run of Big Brother into the autumn and winter.

Desmond is hoping he could lure Cheryl Cole into hosting Big Brother – an effort fuelled by this morning's Daily Star splash "Cheryl's New B Bro Babe" – but the star's camp totally dismissed the public overtures.

"Cheryl has not been approached, and she has no interest in presenting Big Brother," said a spokesman for the singer, noting that star was still waiting to hear whether she would be able to present The X Factor in the US.

So difficult have the Channel 5-Endemol discussions been that Desmond and Ynon Kreiz, the Endemol chief executive, are no longer speaking. That led to talks collapsing in the autumn, and the negotiations only resumed with the intervention of Michael Sherwood, the vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs, whose bank is a one-third shareholder in Endemol.

After the falling-out, Desmond – who still wants Big Brother for the ratings he thinks it will bring – delegated responsibility for the negotiations to Jeff Ford, the Channel 5 director of programmes.

Only in 2012, would Big Brother return to its traditional schedule – running the celebrity show in January, before reappearing with the traditional group of wannabes in the summer months.

That would mean an almost continuous run of Big Brother programmes – running night after night – on Channel 5 from August to January. At the same time, the channel plans to revamp its schedule, with programmes such as Candy Bar Girls, a reality show documenting the "life and loves" of six lesbians who work in a bar in London's Soho.

Channel 5 was expected to generate £260m in revenues in 2010 at the time of its sale by RTL to Desmond for £103.5m in July. But the uptick in the ad market has taken that figure to close to £300m and the channel is generating an estimated £3m of operating profit a month.

This year, Channel 5 is aiming to generate £350m in turnover, again helped by a strong start for TV advertising in 2011, but the anticipated spend on Big Brother and other new programmes may mean that profit growth is not as rapid as the turnover growth implies.

Desmond's company, Northern & Shell, declined to comment.

[Daniel McIver]

Woah ! Thanks!
I Think I believe this , its the Guardian , Im very excited !

[Tom.]

This seems like a more balanced article than todays Daily Star one, although I can't believe they'd be willing to pay £200m and commit to 5 years when it has no guarantees of working as it is. Although maybe with that kind of money in the frame, they aren't going to want to waste the opportunity so I doubt we'll be getting Tesco version with an annoying z lister host as we were expecting

I hope they don't crowbar a series in from August-December where the press will be dominated with X Factor, and then run a celebrity series right after which will just be overkill. They should just leave it for this year and put all the effort into making sure it comes back with a bang next year. I'd rather wait until January and get a really good series than a half arsed one in August just so they can get on air.

The celebrity series needs to launch first too so that there is a bit of wider appeal.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Daniel McIver

Woah ! Thanks!
I Think I believe this , its the Guardian , Im very excited !

Yes They Speak the Truth

[RichardG]

Originally Posted by arista

Yes They Speak the Truth

They didn't speak the truth back in January when they said that a deal was just a few weeks away
I'm not getting my hopes up. It's not coming back until Channel 5, or Richard 'King' Desmond () himself confirms it.

[Mystic Mock]

im excited to see that its 99.99% confirmed that big brother is coming back.

[joeysteele]

So am I jf ,I hope it does come back,as I have said for ages it's still a really good idea,plus, although its not a paper I like the Guardian generally has more real substance to its news than the general trash that pass for current news?..papers.

[arista]

Originally Posted by RichardG

They didn't speak the truth back in January when they said that a deal was just a few weeks away
I'm not getting my hopes up. It's not coming back until Channel 5, or Richard 'King' Desmond () himself confirms it.

But day by day
Things Change.

and
Of Course King Desmond
will confirm it
when he wants to.

[MTVN]

"A three-week run of Celebrity Big Brother is expected to be followed by a run of Big Brother into the autumn and winter"

Dont like the sound of that

[JohnnyBB]

i thought the deal would go throught today the 31st of march but i wont be expecting any annoucement till the 30th june.

[AJ.]

Would Desmond really pay £200Mil for BB? That's twice what he paid for the whole channel!

[arista]

Originally Posted by DeejayAJ

Would Desmond really pay £200Mil for BB? That's twice what he paid for the whole channel!

Yes , he can afford that.

[Daniel McIver]

Its Sound Like alot of bb ! Maybe an announcment tomorrow ? Who knows , we will find out in a couple of hours

[Tom.]

Originally Posted by DeejayAJ

Would Desmond really pay £200Mil for BB? That's twice what he paid for the whole channel!

Over 5 years, if BB is successful even to BB10 levels then it will get Desmond a huge return not just through TV advertising but across his printed media and other channels. Daily Star sales considerably pick up when BB is on

[bananarama]

Originally Posted by arista

Yes They Speak the Truth

A newspaper that speaks the truth!!! Now that's a novelty...

[Omah]

Originally Posted by DeejayAJ

Would Desmond really pay £200Mil for BB? That's twice what he paid for the whole channel!

Originally Posted by arista

Yes , he can afford that.

Originally Posted by Tom.

Over 5 years, if BB is successful even to BB10 levels then it will get Desmond a huge return not just through TV advertising but across his printed media and other channels. Daily Star sales considerably pick up when BB is on

Yeah, and he will change the format to attract a larger, younger, even more gullible demographic .....

[spacecake]

If the new big brother is supposedto be starting in May,then what's happened to the auditions???

[AJ.]

Originally Posted by spacecake

If the new big brother is supposedto be starting in May,then what's happened to the auditions???

The article say August at the earliest but most probably January.

[spacecake]

ahhh i see....well if it does get aired in august,then auditions should be happening pretty soon

[karl100589]

I'm a bit cynical about this as much as I would love it to be true. You do realise what day it is tomorrow.

[MTVN]

Originally Posted by karl100589

I'm a bit cynical about this as much as I would love it to be true. You do realise what day it is tomorrow.

I think the Guardian have got better things to do than contrive a Big Brother related April Fool's joke

[spacecake]

Yeah buty if it was an april fools thing then the news wouldve leaked yesterday?

[BigBrotherfan4ever]

Im really exited about thought of BB coming back, but im trying not to get to excited untill i see it properly confirmed.

[Marsh.]

That's FOUR series of BB in around 12 months. Cramming two series into the latter half of this year then two in the regular slots next year. What a joke.

That's overkill, if the hype and interest in BB didn't die last August then Channel 5 will ensure it with this, stamp on the grave.

And I doubt even Desmond would be stupid enough to waste £200 million on BB. The amount of original programming they could make with that instead it'll get wasted on dressing the Kerry Katona's and Katie Price's of this country up as farm animals for three weeks every January. Pfft.

I'd rather they carried on importing US shows.

[Niall]

-_- Yet another article about the revival of BB.

I'll give it this though - the fact it has a lot more detail in when the show would be broadcast makes me think its a lot more genuine and real.

Still though, I want official confirmation before I believe anything.