ITV Could Bid For Big Brother

ITV could be planning to buy the rights to screen hit reality show Big Brother, according to reports in today’s Guardian.

The report says that Simon Shaps, the ITV director of television, has begun courting Endemol, producers of Big Brother, before formal negotiations for the new contract begin later in the year.

ITV’s own reality show, Love Island has been consistently second best when going head to head with Big Brother this summer, pulling in about half the audience of the Channel 4 show (see Big Brother Beats Love Island).

The Guardian report quotes an unnamed source as saying: “Simon is desperate to buy it. He is going to put up an almighty fight for it. Big Brother is with Channel 4 at the moment and Endemol is quite happy with them but technically it has no home after next year. When it comes to pure financial muscle, ITV could probably beat Channel 4.”

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