Bake Off to shun brand names and stay commercially ‘clean’

THE new series of The Great British Bake Off will not include any product placement in a bid to maintain the “integrity” of the show as it moves to Channel 4, it has been reported.

Sources close to the production of the hit baking show have suggested the channel, which bought the programme in a three-year deal for £75 million, wants to keep the episodes commercially “clean”.

The deals, which may have led to brand names or logos becoming a focus in episodes, could have been worth millions of pounds.

But a source told The Guardian that the show needed to be “free from outside influence” to ensure that the bakers’ stories and judges’ decisions remain at the “core”.

“The integrity of Bake Off is sacrosanct to Love [Productions],” the source added. “Bake Off has always been made with documentary sensibilities, so the notion of product placement is not a natural one.”

It was announced last year that the show was moving from the BBC, after the corporation failed to pay the £25million a year needed to keep it.

A number of the show’s high-profile stars announced they would be leaving, including Mary Berry and presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.

The BBC later announced it had waived a legal clause preventing Channel 4 from showing the revamped Bake Off until next year. The new show will still feature Paul Hollywood as a judge, but he will be joined by restaurateur and food writer Prue Leith. Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding complete the new line-up.

Jonathan Lewis, head of digital partnership innovation at the channel, told the paper the Bake Off tent “will look exactly as it always has when it airs on Channel 4 for the first time later this year”.

A BBC spokesman said at the time of the move that the corporation wished the programme well for the future.

The new series will start this autumn.

‘The integrity of Bake Off is sacrosanct, so the notion of product placement is not a natural one to the makers’