Noel's House Party

Was that The Bodyguard? I was told a story about that ages ago where Noel stormed out straight after the recording or something similar, can't remember. I've only seen the promo for it but it actually looked like a fairly decent format.

Yes. Noel supposedly walked away from it. It was produced by Glen Hugil the original banker and producer of Deal or No Deal now heading up a department within ITV Studios.

Who actually owns the rights to the format, given I note the Dutch version had Mr Blobby?

I believe the format and Mr Blobby were owned 50:50 between Edmonds' Unique Media and BBC Worldwide (or BBC Enterprises as it was).

Think it was Unique (Noel's company at the time) BBC co-production in the end. I imagine the BBC retain the rights.

He also did this unbroadcast pilot for 2way tv (sony) 5 years ago...

Articles such as this one state that Noel owns/owned the rights.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bbc-pulls-plug-on-noels-house-party-cancelled-1136432.html

From what I can gather from other articles I've seen online, around the time the show was at its peak, Noel renewed his contract with the BBC which saw him owning the rights to the programme, with the BBC getting 50% of any royalties earned as a result of selling things like Mr Blobby merchandise or international versions. I'd imagine once the contract between Unique and the BBC expired, the Beeb had no claim on the rights.

Just checked a clip on YouTube and the credits state "Based on an original format by Unique Group Ltd".

Seems Unique went into liquidation a few years back, so what that means for the rights I don't know. Administrators sold off their shares in the UBC Media company, which still exists, but the article below only links that to radio content. I guess too it's possible Noel personally owned the rights to House Party rather than through the company.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/article/672241/noel-edmonds-loses-banker-unique-group-goes-receivership

Ironically googling "Unique Group" isn't much help as that name is far from unique!

Unique does still exist as a production company, both in TV and radio, with the Comedy Awards among their production. As you can see, they were still mentioned as the show's producers when the Comedy Awards were axed the other week...
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/16/channel-4-drops-british-comedy-awards-jonathan-ross

Whether Noel has anything to do with them anymore, I don't know.

I think he resigned his position at Unique around the time he went back into TV presenting with Deal or No Deal., from what I recall.

He cut ties with unique in 2007, two years after DOND began