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Is ITV's mammoth X Factor and Britain's Got Talent deal worth it?

By Chris Bell

November 20, 2013 | 3 min read

ITV has signed a new deal with Simon Cowell to renew the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent for another three years – at a reported cost of between £140m and 150m. Chris Bell, senior buyer at UM London, looks at whether ITV's stock-in-trade talent show and celebrity formats are worth their huge outlay.

X Factor has been renewed until 2016

I am sure executives at Channel 4 will call formats such as X Factor and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here old, tired and the like.

But I also suspect that deep down they would love to have two shows that will bring in close to 10 million viewers every time they broadcast, and even more for the semi-final and final stages (so far this series the X Factor has averaged 8.6 million viewers and peaked at 9.98 million on 1 September).

The X Factor and I’m a Celeb... finals have been two of the biggest commercial properties on TV for many years, only being beaten by worldwide events such as England games at major football tournaments or final episodes of Britain’s Got Talent or Downton Abbey. They may not be an ideal match for ABC1 brands, but for brands targeting the young and families, there is nothing else on ITV that is proving as successful at the moment.

These figures explain why the two shows, whatever people think of them, still have a massive pull for advertisers. So why should ITV change for change’s sake?

Channel 4 got rid of Big Brother in 2010, but I am sure it would love to have any programmes doing 6+ Ad1634 TVRs at all let alone daily for three months – as was the case when the programme we love to hate was on air. As things stand, ITV dominates the commercial TV market in Q4 and these two shows play a huge role in that.

Having said that, ITV is constantly looking to evolve its offering - and has thus far had mixed results. (Stepping Out in September 2013 and Superstar in July 2012 are a few examples that haven’t quite hit the heights.)

Once it finds a successful replacement for the celebrity or ‘wanna be famous’ talent show format, we may see the last of I’m a Celebrity or X Factor. But for now, calling a day on any programme as successful as these is a tough call. Call it too early and millions are lost in revenues; call it too late and the channel's reputation suffers.

I think that until the public vote with their remote controls and switch them off, these two shows will continue to draw in advertisers year after year.

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