The Great British Bake Off to feature more adverts than any other show in Channel 4 history
Episodes will feature almost 17 minutes worth of ads
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Your support makes all the difference.When Channel 4 announced they would be taking Bake Off from the BBC, many eyebrows were raised. Would the show be the same? Who would host? Will adverts ruin everything?
Unfortunately, having spent a rumoured £75 million on the series, Channel 4 look set to thoroughly monetise their investment, the show being broken up by nearly 17 minutes of adverts.
The Sun reports that the first episode will feature 16 minutes and 42 seconds of adverts, reportedly the most adverts Channel 4 has broadcast during one show ever.
Channel 4 previously announced that each episode will run 75 minutes in total, meaning viewers will get as much Bake Off as when playing on the BBC.
Speaking to press following a screening of the premiere, Prue Leith — Mary Berry’s replacement — acknowledged how viewers will likely record the episode and skip through the adverts.
"I want to comfort some people who might think, 'Oh, I don't want to go to Channel 4 because I don't want to have the ads'... you don't have to watch it in real time, do you?” she said, according to The Telegraph.
Channel 4's chief creative officer Jay Hunt added how running the show without adverts would be "financially impossible”, saying: "We need to be really careful that audiences go with the programme and they're comfortable watching it and they're not a distraction.
"But we are a commercial broadcaster and we do need to pay for shows like Bake Off, so I make no apology for there being ads in it. We've been very, very careful about thinking where the ad breaks sit."
Channel 4 will also make money from the show’s two official sponsors, Lyle's Golden Syrup and Dr. Oetker.
Meanwhile, the first reviews have been released, the response from critics being overwhelmingly positive. Let’s hope the Bake Off charm continues for the rest of the series, which begins Tuesday, 29 August at 8pm.
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