Sky & Princess to serve Breakfast at C4

Media Guardian are reporting that Channel 4 are ready to hand over the £10m contract to supply the followup programme to the Big Breakfast to a joint bid from Sky and Princess Productions.

If that's true then Sky are gonna be chuffed... they've been looking for a foot into British terrestrial telly for ages, they usually get knocked back by government but the politics can't touch this. It'll be sad to see P24's BB go but then C4Daily only lasted three years...

On another note, why did P24 use Richard Bacon in their pilot along with Chris Moyles when the former is not helping The BB get its act together?...

I look forward to finding out if Sky definitely are signing the contract later today.

Well its a sad day for The Big Breakfast but maybe a good day for morning TV. Sky and Princesses bid looked good, and the spirit of the Big Breakfast will live on regardless (the style enabled many shows to be made, including Light/Late Lunch).
Its was strange to use Bacon and Moyles (who I think is sh*te), but I think that shows how short of ideas Planet 24 are.
Anyway they managed to get a bit of a dig in this morning, when covering the Sky News bust up, Bacon said something like 'And who'd let people like these on morning TV'.
I think its appropraite I quote from The Simpsons,
Homer: Is this a good ending because Mr Burns go his bear back or a bad ending because we didn't get the money.
Marge: Its an ending thats enough.

Good or bad? Is just an ending.

If you read The Guardian's report it says it's 'expected to' hand the deal to Sky/Princess.

Just as Branson was 'expected to' win the bid for the national lottery, there's no concrete proof to say it will happen, it's just The Guardian considering the most likely outcome, and as we know from previous experiences it isn't always the case that what the papers report comes true.

The last time Sky were involved with C4 was when Chisholm was in charge, and they didn't win it then, even with the most dangerous (e.g. 'throw a coin and if it's heads then you get a redundancy fee, it not then **** off) bloke in the industry at that time.

Sky's a much stronger operation than it was then, it's news is vastly better, it's shown it can produce decent entertainment and originally programming and yes, it probably will win. But it hasn't won... yet.

Maybe the decision will be left to the new Chief Exec. Mr. Thomas may have completly different ideas.

And that programming would be ?? Apart from Sports programming & Sky News, Sky TV's output is very poor. No quality dramas to speak of (I know you're going to say Dream Team now) no quality entertainment, no Sky are not good programme makers. You've only to look at the output of Sky One to realise that. Sky One after 9pm may as well just be called Tits & Bums TV.

Sky have been making a great deal of original programming - a lot of it a hell of a lot better than the **** e ITV churn out every day of the week. However, a few months ago Sky One did go back to this 'tits & bums' style and original programming has ceased.

If you'd bothered to pay attention to the movie service Sky provide - oh yes, not all of it's available on ITV Digital - then you'd know about Sky Pictures, which was a BSkyB company that produced quality and original films, some of which have won awards and high acclaim.

Sky One was on the rise a few months ago but now it's lagging again.

Just because Sky One's output is now comprised of mainly imported rubbish does not mean that Sky cannot produce decent quality programmes.

This isn't really the issue. Princess - well known for their youth appeal - will be handling the production side of things should they win the contract and Sky will be operating the news, sport, showbiz aspects.

Somehow I knew you'd reply. It's all a matter of opinion whether ITV churn out **** e every day of the week. When Sky produce as much home grown programming as the ITV companies do week in week out, then maybe I'll take them seriously as programme makers.

The fact is Sky One is a missed opportunity for Sky and has been for years. I get the impression that in terms of programming, Sky are very lazy. They can't be bothered, so would rather fill airtime with cheap reality TV and imports. If they really want the Channel to be a competitor to BBC One & ITV1, and ever one day be free to air, they need to spend some money and put out some original, imaginative programming.

Sky won't be making the programme, Princess Productions home of Model Behaviour, Light Lunch and Show Me the Money, will do the production. Sebastian Scott, head of Princess, was the launch editor of the Big Breakfast, which most will argue was it's heyday. Sky will be supplying the news, sports and showbiz content, via Sky News and Sky Sports.

(Edited by mromega2000 at 7:26 pm on Dec. 13, 2001)

E4 mainly comprises of crap, but Channel 4 are excellent programme producers.

My point is, you cannot judge the output of Sky but Sky One.

Sky produce some excellent stuff. Sky One does not.

Sky News, Sports and Movies all could be companies in their own right - they've been able to prove themselves as top quality services that can outshine their terrestrial rivals. Sky One has not.

You're right, Sky One is a missed opportunity for Sky and will continue to be just that until they realise that an all entertainment channel doesn't work.
News, Sports, Business, Music, Movies, Weather, Travel and docus. etc. could all go on Sky One and it could be turned into a top rate service. Sky One boffins needs to realise that there is nothing wrong with news and sport on Sky One, that a nice big movie now and again would boost ratings. Not just hours of cartoon and American imports.

The fact is, Sky One will not be a success until there is more on the channel than simply entertainment.

Without The Simpsons, Sky One is nothing.