Fightbox Flop

DigitalSpy
BBC Three's interactive gaming series Fightbox is costing an estimated £136 per viewer per episode, according to the Media Guardian today. The corporation spent four years developing the show - in which contestants fight against each other via characters they have created online - at a cost of between £3m and £4m.

After three weeks on air, the programme is manging an average of just 22,000 viewers, working out at an astonishing cost of £136 - more than the price of the licence fee - for each viewer. The show broadcasts in the notoriously tough 7.30pm slot on weekday evenings and has ranged between 56,000 and 6,000 viewers so far.

The BBC pointed out that the show would be repeated on BBC Two later this year, where it would get much higher audiences, but claimed that viewing figures alone were not the true measure of the programme.

"FightBox on BBC3 and soon to be seen on BBC2 is not just about the actual viewing figures. The programme brings together computer gaming, internet and TV technology to create a new and innovative entertainment format," said a statement. "The format is also a key part of BBC3's commitment to start risk-taking shows online and then moving them to TV as seen previously with Celebdaq."

Taking into account that the programme will be aired on BBC2 soon, and has taken four years to create, do you believe the BBC were right to commission Fightbox?

That article is lifted from a Media Guardian article, which *surprise surprise* is extremely misleading. The series is soon to be shown on BBC2, and will be seen by a lot more people, so it won't cost £136 per viewer.

What this does show is that BBC Three is a complete waste of time and money, with any decent programmes getting repeated on BBC Two. I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how BBC Three differs from BBC Two's 16-30 programming.

What actually is Fightbox? I've seen a trail or two on BBC One and Two but couldn't tell you a thing about the show...

It's terrible.
I saw a bit of it on BBC Three the other night.
Basically, you get two people who apparently are badly controlling some badly animated/modeled characters to make them "fight".
It has a fake audience who have to pretend to be excited despite the fact they're seeing, well...nothing

I hope it doesn't make it to BBC TWO to be perfectly honest.

It's a bit like a programme off Game Network, but with a higher budget.

Just as dull.

On a wonder round TVC one day I went to the windowy-balcony bit where they were putting the final touches to the studio and set. I also noticed a load of spirrally like disks on the roof, which I'm told were to act in a similar way to barcodes helping to guide the robot on-screen. This was invented specifically for the programme, although no doubt will be used on other programmes in the future. It was obvious to me that there was a lot of hype and excitement about this expensive venture.

Put simply, it's chronic. Complete waste of taxpayers money.

Yes I also thought the program was awful, but that's the thing about original commissioning- you get some right, you get some wrong. Look at the thread on the awesome Monkey Dust and you'll realise that not everything is failing on BBC Three- Little Britain and Burn It have also been highly praised.

The fact is commercial TV isn't taking risks- their combined output is converging into derivative drivel....thank god the BBC are allowed to take risks.

To be honest, FightBox is rubish on BBC THREE. Its such a boring show, and even i I was interested I would not tune in every night at 7:30, as other channels have other things to watch.

I hope this show goes the same way as Dom Jolly!

And celebdaq is getting better on THREE - finding myself watching that most Fridays now. I think the decision to shift to a liquid news alternative whilst retaining some celebdaq stuff worked well, and is pretty funny now too

It's good stuff. Remeber there's thousands of players on the website, which hadn't been mentioned in the article too

<plug>http://www.global-centre.com/fightbox</plug>

What, like decent BBC Two programmes getting moved to BBC One!!! That's just the way things are. More risks are taken on BBC Three, some work and some fail.

Burn It on BBC Three at the moment is one of the best pieces of television drama I've seen for 20 years. The script is amazing, the acting close to perfect and even the soundtrack (which you can get online and on BBCi) is great!

However it deals with some issues that wouldn't fit easily onto BBC One and maybe not even on Two.