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The Great British Bake Off could be poised to return to its original home on the BBC.
The Beeb’s director general Matt Brittin has said that the broadcaster has been approached by Channel 4 to discuss a streaming partnership.
The comments were made to Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Wednesday, in Brittin’s first major public appearance since taking on the top BBC job six weeks ago.
The talks could result in shows like Bake Off being added to iPlayer, marking a huge return for the cooking show after it left the BBC in 2016.
Referring to the merger between Sky and ITV announced this week, Brittin said a deal between the two would be in Channel 4’s interests.
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‘All of these mergers are driven by the need to have scale. Channel 4 looks very subscale,’ Brittin told the gathered politicians.
‘One opportunity for them would be, in partnership with the BBC, having content on iPlayer that continues to be ad-funded.’
He continued: ‘There are an array of commercial, audience, public service, and technical issues, but what we’ll do is explore that as quickly as we are able, because I think that’s something that’s going to be important for public service media.’
Which channel would you prefer Bake Off to be on?
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BBC One
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Channel 4
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Neither, it should go elsewhere
However, Channel 4 CEO Priya Dogra previously rebuffed the assertion that Channel 4 could successfully merge with any broadcaster.
Speaking at the Creative Cities conversation, she said: ‘I was in mergers and acquisitions for a long time and the thing you learn is that there are no mergers. There are only acquisitions.
‘Someone is always buying someone else and from my seat, that’s the wrong answer for Channel 4, because it would just mean Channel 4 gets subsumed into another organisation.’
She went on to say that it would result in a loss of the broadcaster’s editorial voice, as well as to the creative sector.
It comes after speculation that ITV was in talks to take the beloved cooking show off Channel 4’s plate.
A source told Metro: ‘It’s a great show. It’s on Channel 4, it’s doing well and Channel 4 has recommissioned it. This is speculation.’
Channel 4 said yesterday in a statement: ‘Channel 4’s GBBO deal is with Love and as such is unaffected by the Sky ITV deal.
‘The show’s existing multi-year agreement with Love remains in place, meaning Bake Off fans will be able to continue to enjoy the show on Channel 4 as usual.’