DS
Now, as someone who works at Fountain Studios I do have a slight bias as to the show staying with us but there is no denying that around the world many other variations of X Factor's live stages are outgrowing the UK version. And, after watching this...
The X Factor - Denmark - 2010 Final - Opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmcs0fUr5Y
...I should think that Simon Cowell is beginning to have the same visions for the live shows (or indeed the Final) in our version. I think it comes down to a variety of things. We have the issue of budget and money and that said money is being supplied by ITV - in this day and age they don't have a lot of it to throw around even though the show does make a huge profit every year. The Danish network that produced the above video, DR, is public service and doesn't necessarily have more money than a commercial rival but will have more secure funds that a commercial rival.
Also, Fountain is the only ideal fully-equipped Studio in this country to deal with shows of X Factor size together with the huge studio and it's dual production-control facilities for main and sister shows to work from the same venue.
The example above from Denmark also comes from a Scandinavian broadcaster who seem to be by far the experts at producing large-scale, arena-based programmes with extremely high production values. Look at Melodifestivalen each year. If our competition looked anything like the NTAs from the o2 or the Brit Awards then I'd prefer it to stay in a slightly smaller TV Studio environment to be honest!
As soon as you start selling tickets to television programmes then people expect something decent for their money. In reality in an arena you wouldn't be able to see very much and remembering that this is a television programme being optimzed for viewers at home means that there will be cameras and all sorts in the way for a lot of the time. When giving tickets for free the studio audience don't have a leg to stand on when saying "Oh, there's a camera in front of me and can't see sod all".
The X Factor - Denmark - 2010 Final - Opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmcs0fUr5Y
...I should think that Simon Cowell is beginning to have the same visions for the live shows (or indeed the Final) in our version. I think it comes down to a variety of things. We have the issue of budget and money and that said money is being supplied by ITV - in this day and age they don't have a lot of it to throw around even though the show does make a huge profit every year. The Danish network that produced the above video, DR, is public service and doesn't necessarily have more money than a commercial rival but will have more secure funds that a commercial rival.
Also, Fountain is the only ideal fully-equipped Studio in this country to deal with shows of X Factor size together with the huge studio and it's dual production-control facilities for main and sister shows to work from the same venue.
The example above from Denmark also comes from a Scandinavian broadcaster who seem to be by far the experts at producing large-scale, arena-based programmes with extremely high production values. Look at Melodifestivalen each year. If our competition looked anything like the NTAs from the o2 or the Brit Awards then I'd prefer it to stay in a slightly smaller TV Studio environment to be honest!
As soon as you start selling tickets to television programmes then people expect something decent for their money. In reality in an arena you wouldn't be able to see very much and remembering that this is a television programme being optimzed for viewers at home means that there will be cameras and all sorts in the way for a lot of the time. When giving tickets for free the studio audience don't have a leg to stand on when saying "Oh, there's a camera in front of me and can't see sod all".