The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Here is an article taken from www.frinky.com:
The BBC has quit talks to buy future episodes of The Simpsons.
It said rival channels had pushed the price to "ludicrous" levels.
The BBC already has the rights to screen shows for the next few years.
But it says it felt it was unable to justify spending so much of licence payers' cash on the show to continue the deal.
Episodes are understood to have cost around £100,000 each until now, but a bidding war has pushed these to more than £700,000.
Channel 5 and Channel 4 are still in negotiations to land The Simpsons, which is one of BBC2's big family draws.
However, BBC2 controller Jane Root has walked out of talks because of the excessive cost.
It follows the same channel's withdrawal from discussions to tie up a new deal with Naked Chef Jamie Oliver last week because of unease about his commercial deals with Sainsbury's.
The decision to pull out of Simpsons talks does not mean that the season ends suddenly on BBC2. It will continue to show the programme until the end of 2006 with three new series and repeats.
But the successful bidder will also get the right to the repeats in a matter of months - and it will begin showing new editions of the programme in 2004.
A BBC spokesman said today: "It got to the point where it was a ludicrous price and too much money for us to be able to justify in terms of the licence fee.
The BBC has quit talks to buy future episodes of The Simpsons.
It said rival channels had pushed the price to "ludicrous" levels.
The BBC already has the rights to screen shows for the next few years.
But it says it felt it was unable to justify spending so much of licence payers' cash on the show to continue the deal.
Episodes are understood to have cost around £100,000 each until now, but a bidding war has pushed these to more than £700,000.
Channel 5 and Channel 4 are still in negotiations to land The Simpsons, which is one of BBC2's big family draws.
However, BBC2 controller Jane Root has walked out of talks because of the excessive cost.
It follows the same channel's withdrawal from discussions to tie up a new deal with Naked Chef Jamie Oliver last week because of unease about his commercial deals with Sainsbury's.
The decision to pull out of Simpsons talks does not mean that the season ends suddenly on BBC2. It will continue to show the programme until the end of 2006 with three new series and repeats.
But the successful bidder will also get the right to the repeats in a matter of months - and it will begin showing new editions of the programme in 2004.
A BBC spokesman said today: "It got to the point where it was a ludicrous price and too much money for us to be able to justify in terms of the licence fee.
Page:
I was reading yesterday that Channel 5 are after series 13 which has just been shown on sky one i think the bbc have not yet bought that, and so we could be seeing (depending on my signal) the Simpsons on Channel 5.
Hey, as long as they stick Jo Guest on with him, I'll be happy ;)
odds on that channel 5 sign up jaimie oliver instead to do the naked chef show- naked
Rock on Sky One
Ah well, 2006? I'll probably have gone off the Simpsons by then! That's YEARS away!
And I have Sky One anyway :)
And I have Sky One anyway :)
Cut the whole Saturday night 'Entertainment' Line up and spend on the Simpsons
BBC are pants, They force us to pay bags of money and offer nothing in return. The only things I watch on both BBC channels are Film 2002, the repeated Simpsons and the repeated Fresh prince, Pants I tell you :-)
Big train is good, but gimme gimme gimme must go!
Most programs on BBC are lame, why not cancle them all and make it the BSBC. A 100% simpsons channel.
Most programs on BBC are lame, why not cancle them all and make it the BSBC. A 100% simpsons channel.
Why are the BBC so cheap? Match of the Day was bad enough but this takes the biscuit. They should shell out to keep programs like this and stop spending money on dross like Big Train and Gimme Gimme Gimme
Yeah thats right
Page: