BBC Says Doh! Over Simpsons Rights

The BBC has pulled out of negotiations for the terrestrial TV rights to The Simpsons after Channel 4 and Channel 5 allegedly bid seven times more than the price currently being paid by the BBC.

A spokesman for the corperation today confirmed that Jane Root, controller of BBC2, had walked away from negotiations following “vastly inflated rival bids.” He said: “We are aware that The Simpsons is one of the greatest TV shows ever made, but the price was just too high. We simply could not justify spending that amount of money.”

The BBC currently pays £100,000 for each episode of The Simpsons, which regularly draws around 3.5 million viewers and is one of BBC2’s highest rating programmes. However, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are thought to be willing to pay as much as £700,000 per episode for the show.

Channel 4 has already achieved success with expensive American imports such as Friends, ER and Frasier, but winning the The Simpsons would represent a major coup for Channel 5, which is widely acknowledged to need an “appointment to view” TV series to increase its audience share.

A spokesman for Channel 5 refused to confirm whether it had entered the bidding, saying: “We can’t discuss any commercial deals that might be in the pipeline.”

The successful bidder would get the rights to show repeats of The Simpsons from November, with new episodes from 2004. However, the BBC’s current deal lasts until 2006. It still has three new series and repeats to show and is about to start screening episodes five nights a week in an attempt to compete with Channels 4’s Smallville.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.co.uk Channel 5: 020 7550 5555 www.channel5.co.uk

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