Decline of Top Gear under Nine's mismanagement

[DiscoMick]

I thought the following piece from Crikey might interest you:


Top Gear wanes in value for Nine. The BBC and the Nine Network have radically recast their agreement for telecasting the top-rating (or formerly top-rating) Top Gear. Gone from the new agreement is any talk of a local version, as there was with SBS and the first agreement with Nine signed several years ago. Gone also is any exclusivity that Nine had to broadcast fresh episodes of the program in Australia, before the BBC could on its Knowledge channel on Foxtel.
Nine will now have to wait until each fresh episode of the program has aired on pay-TV in Australia, a big comedown for Nine and a sign of penny pinching as revenues and profits fall and the ownership outlook clouds. The original agreement with Nine also included rights to the Top Gear archive (which Nine uses on its digital GO channel). That also includes the rights to the US Top Gear which is a dreadful piece of television, as clunky as the Australian versions.
The original agreement was said to have cost Nine between $18 and $20 million because of the rights to the back catalogue of old programs and the exclusivity for each new episode. So the new agreement -- each new episode will air on the BBC Knowledge channel on Foxtel before screening on Nine -- is considerably higher than that high-cost deal. And Nine will have to wait eight weeks after the episode has screened on BBC Knowledge. That is likely to see Nine accumulate a small bank of episodes so it can launch them and run in a small season.
Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide is in the early stages of sorting out the future of the joint venture with ACP Magazines covering the publishing of Top Gear magazine in Australasia in the wake of the proposed sale of ACP to Bauer of Germany. Baurer is not a BBC rights holder anywhere in the world, so there will have to be negotiations to formalise that arrangement. -- Glenn Dyer (http://www.crikey.com.au/author/glenndyer/)

[wagoo]

Channel 9 ? Sounds like Television. Oh yes i remember Television! I've got one in the corner somewhere. Must give it another chance sometime.
Bill.

[MR LR]

They lost me to the Internet a long time ago, no other channel manages to turn a 52 minute show into 90 minutes of tv two months after it premiered, bunch of dingleberries.

[p38arover]

I stopped watching it after it went to Ch 9. They ruined it.

[superquag]

Just got fed-up with that Clarkson bloke... and his biased opinions.:o

- and the endless, inane adverts !

ABC iView and SBS On-Demand, much better !

[Disco Muppet]

Jeremy Clarkson is the biggest ******, can't stand him.

[Landy Smurf]

i love top gear but i never seem to be in front of the tv when it is on. i too think it was better on sbs from memory it was on saturdays at 730pm

[DiscoMick]

Nine put so many ads. in that 50 mins turned into over 100 and it was really annoying so stopped watching it live and recorded it so I could skip thru. the ads.

[pando]

I just wait till it appears on the internet, even iTunes store had the complete 18th season available before nine had fully aired in oz, (well that i had seen, never saw the Bentley ep on TV) with no ads, and uncut, and in the right order.

And before the piracy high horse comes out I do go and buy the DVD once it is released, as I do with anything I watch that I like.

I really like the show, and don't even mind Clarkson. Opinionated? Wouldn't watch him if he wasn't as the show would end up like that god awful thing the bloke who used to be on Sale of the Century does.

Take his point of view or opinion on cars as gospel, I think not.

Find his writing and presentation interesting and amusing, well yes.

[Homestar]

Just got fed-up with that Clarkson bloke... and his biased opinions.:o

- and the endless, inane adverts !

ABC iView and SBS On-Demand, much better !

I like his biased opinions on Range Rovers - he actually likes them.:)

[Landy Smurf]

i like all the presenters hammond annoys me abit but they are all good i just wish the aus version could have at least tried to be good

[460cixy]

Don't start me on aus top gear what a bunch of dingalings no talent and just broke stuff. As for top gear I love it but just don't get time to watch tv

[BigBlackDog]

I like his biased opinions on Range Rovers - he actually likes them.:)

...AND they had a Defender in the sub zero part of the cool wall!

[stallie]

Stopped watching it when it went to 9...

[DiscoMick]

Nine's mismanagement of Top Gear appears to have resulted in a large loss of audience, which the BBC is now to try to win back on Foxtel.

[~Rich~]

I don't know if any of you guys have seen Top Gear US.
Some of their episodes are a scream!
Best of all - No adds!

I download them off the net,
If you want to view a couple of them have a look at:
Series 1 episode 9 - America's Toughest Trucks.
4WD's challenge.

Series 3 episode 1 - Big Rigs.
They drive semi trailers and have some really funny challenges.

If they don't make you laugh you have a problem!

[p38arover]

I saw Top Gear USA advertised on Foxtel, but haven't watched it. I gave it the same short shrift that I gave the Australian version of Top Gear. Maybe I shouldn't have.

[DiscoMick]

I watched one USA show and was unimpressed, as it was pretty amateurish, but that was only one episode.

[Homestar]

Still unconvinced about the US version - one episode was ok, and the next one sucked. I'll watch a couple more to see what the norm is.

As for channel 9, with them owing over $3.5 Billion to creditors at the moment, they are looking down the barrel of insolvency so hopefully they will just be a distant memory soon... They deserve everything that is coming for them. They have treated their viewers with contempt for too long, and they are seeing the results now. Karma I say...:D

[VladTepes]

TG USA is superior to TG Australia

I've enjoyed the USA ones I've seen.

[s7000]

As said, channel 9 ruined it with ads. There should be 4 parts to a show which should run for an hour in total. 9 added ads where there shouldn't have been and just cut out at random points in the show. It's a joke!

Top Gear US craps all over the AU version too. They made it their own. TGAU have just tried to copy the UK version as close as possible but that just doesn't work. Plus the Aussie hosts just don't seem to gel. TGAU really missed the mark.

[DiscoMick]

Clarkson seems to be laughing all the way to the bank, judging from this report in The Guardian:

Top Gear deal nets Jeremy Clarkson multi-million pound payout
BBC buys Clarkson's 30% stake in company behind BBC2's most popular show as presenters sign up to three more years
Share 38 Email Tara Conlan and Dan Sabbagh
The Guardian, Thursday 27 September 2012 20.28 BST
Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, for whom talking about fast cars has proved very lucrative Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, for whom talking about fast cars has proved very lucrative.
Photograph: Ana Poenariu/AFP/Getty Images
It is the testosterone-fuelled, high-octane motoring show beloved by the country. But never before has talking about fast cars proved so lucrative for Jeremy Clarkson, who has scooped a multimillion pound windfall signing a deal to present Top Gear for three more years.
The real engine of his financial success comes not from his on-screen presenter's fee, but from the BBC buying out his 30% stake in a company set up to exploit the commercial opportunities generated by the hit BBC2 motoring show that Clarkson helped to reinvent a decade ago. Co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond are also committing to BBC2's most popular programme for another three years.
But it is Clarkson who is in line to make the most money because, unlike his on-screen colleagues, he was a shareholder in a joint venture with BBC Worldwide – the corporation's commercial arm – responsible for live shows, DVDs and licensing Top Gear spin-offs around the world.
Clarkson's financial arrangements with the BBC already meant he was easily the best-paid man working at the corporation, earning somewhere over £3m last year – but apart from a six-figure presenting fee for Top Gear, most of his income came from commercial activities.
The other likely multimillionaire is Andy Wilman, Top Gear's producer – who was at Repton school with Clarkson – and who is also credited with revitalising a show that faced the axe by the BBC, by turning it into a boys'-own racing and reviewing adventure format with global appeal.
Clarkson and Wilman – with a 20% stake – together owned half of a company called Bedder 6, which was set up with the BBC five years ago. Originally designed to keep the pair loyal to the hugely successful programme, and reduce the amount of money paid out by the licence fee payer, Top Gear's global success meant that both men made significant sums.
The on-screen agreement for Clarkson sees the BBC buying out Clarkson and Wilman's stakes in the lucrative Bedder 6, handing them an unspecified – but substantial – windfall. BBC Worldwide will now take full control of Bedder 6 and the profits it produces.
Insiders indicated that the buyout involved a seven-figure sum. Clarkson took to Twitter to say that any suggestions that his share could be worth £10m or more were "seriously wrong". Bedder 6 made £15.2m in pre-tax profits in the year to March 2011, such is the success of the company. At that level of profit the business could be valued at between £50m and £100m – but the structure of the BBC takeover is unknown.
But Clarkson and Wilman resigned as directors of Bedder 6 two weeks ago. Under the new deal, May and Hammond will now get a share of Top Gear's commercial revenue, in return for promoting the show around the world. But the money will be paid to them directly by BBC Worldwide, not channelled via a separate company.
In July it emerged that Clarkson's income from the motoring programme was boosted by £900,000 to £2.7m in the year to the end of March after dividends from Bedder 6 increased from £9m from £6m the previous year. Added to his Bedder 6 fee of £350,000 and talent fee from the BBC, believed to be just under £500,000, this took the total Clarkson earned from Top Gear to more than £3.5m.
There has been speculation that May and Hammond – Captain Slow and The Hamster to fans of the show – were concerned at missing out on a share of the show's DVD sales and income from live shows that went into Bedder 6. A BBC Worldwide spokesman said: "BBC Worldwide has agreed new commercial deals with Jeremy, James, Richard and Andy to secure Top Gear's international future for another three years. "This agreement secures the commercial future of Top Gear without using a penny of licence fee money and allows us to continue to grow the brand around the world, reinvest in Top Gear and return profits to the BBC."
The popularity of Top Gear around the world means Clarkson and Wilman have been piling up cash at a time when other top BBC "talent" has faced pay cuts as the corporation attempts to cut costs after the licence was frozen at £145.50. Earlier this year the BBC revealed that the combined pay of its stars earning £1m-plus annually had fallen to £9.7m from £14.7m the previous year.
The BBC's millionaire pay club comprises between three and six stars, according to the corporation's annual report. The individuals are not identified, but are understood to include Graham Norton and Gary Lineker. Norton took a pay cut when he renegotiated his BBC deal and Lineker is expected to face pressure to take less money when his contract comes up for renewal next year. The BBC paid 16 performers more than £500,000 in the 12 months to the end of March, compared with 19 the previous year. Top Gear has been identified as one of BBC Worldwide's global brands – along with the likes of Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing – with the potential to generate commercial revenue internationally. Commercial spin-offs include versions of Top Gear magazine in 31 countries, a live tour that has visited cities including Perth, Moscow and Stockholm. The original show is broadcast in about 200 territories and local versions have been made in countries including the US and South Korea.

[RaceRecall]

I've completely lost track of when it's even on, or whether it's a new or old episode. Put it back on SBS where it belongs. No wonder Channel nines going broke!


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