Post by RedMoon11 on Mar 18, 2014 22:56:05 GMT
BBC to Open Top Gear Talks
28 FEBRUARY, 2014 | BY JAKE KANTER
The BBC is poised to open talks with hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May over another long-term deal for Top Gear.
The BBC2 motoring show’s executive producer Andy Wilman told Broadcast’s Talking TV that conversations over future series are due to get underway imminently, with the existing three-year agreement expiring in 2015.
It comes after former BBC communications boss Ed Williams claimed that some of the corporation’s biggest brands, including Top Gear, will “reach the end of their natural lives” in the next decade. He made the comments in book Is The BBC In Crisis?.
Wilman said: “Every deal that’s done is done with the notion that the show will be on the floor, scraping the barrel…by the time the three years is up. There’s clearly an appetite, it’s still there. So, we’ll start talking soon.”
The producer, who has worked on Top Gear since 2002, said the team “haven’t got an end game plan” and no one has told them to “bugger off”.
He added: “When we look stupid or when we think we are flogging a dead horse [we’ll stop], but that hasn’t happened this series. It’s better than the last series, which was a bit ropey.”
On the prospect of a new BBC2 controller, following the announcement that Janice Hadlow is stepping aside, he joked: “If they ride a bicycle, or drive a Prius or it’s Ken Livingston, we are screwed.”
The existing Top Gear deal, signed in September 2012, is understood to have netted Wilman and Clarkson millions of pounds after BBC Worldwide took full control of Bedder 6 - the company that held the commercial rights to the show.
The BBC commercial arm already owned 50% of the firm, while Clarkson held a 30% stake and executive producer Andy Wilman fractionally under 20%.
m.broadcastnow.co.uk/5068174.article
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q8pu3IM8rcsJ:m.broadcastnow.co.uk/5068174.article+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
28 FEBRUARY, 2014 | BY JAKE KANTER
The BBC is poised to open talks with hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May over another long-term deal for Top Gear.
The BBC2 motoring show’s executive producer Andy Wilman told Broadcast’s Talking TV that conversations over future series are due to get underway imminently, with the existing three-year agreement expiring in 2015.
It comes after former BBC communications boss Ed Williams claimed that some of the corporation’s biggest brands, including Top Gear, will “reach the end of their natural lives” in the next decade. He made the comments in book Is The BBC In Crisis?.
Wilman said: “Every deal that’s done is done with the notion that the show will be on the floor, scraping the barrel…by the time the three years is up. There’s clearly an appetite, it’s still there. So, we’ll start talking soon.”
The producer, who has worked on Top Gear since 2002, said the team “haven’t got an end game plan” and no one has told them to “bugger off”.
He added: “When we look stupid or when we think we are flogging a dead horse [we’ll stop], but that hasn’t happened this series. It’s better than the last series, which was a bit ropey.”
On the prospect of a new BBC2 controller, following the announcement that Janice Hadlow is stepping aside, he joked: “If they ride a bicycle, or drive a Prius or it’s Ken Livingston, we are screwed.”
The existing Top Gear deal, signed in September 2012, is understood to have netted Wilman and Clarkson millions of pounds after BBC Worldwide took full control of Bedder 6 - the company that held the commercial rights to the show.
The BBC commercial arm already owned 50% of the firm, while Clarkson held a 30% stake and executive producer Andy Wilman fractionally under 20%.
m.broadcastnow.co.uk/5068174.article
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q8pu3IM8rcsJ:m.broadcastnow.co.uk/5068174.article+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
