Bake Off needs 3m viewers to make enough dough, says C4

CHANNEL 4 needs The Great British Bake Off to attract only three million viewers to profit from its £75million deal for the show, according to the broadcaster’s chief of programming.

Jay Hunt told an industry conference that Bake Off, which starts its first Channel 4 run next week, could suffer a mass exodus of viewers and still be a money-spinner.

Ms Hunt, who caused controversy last year when she signed a deal with Love Productions to take Bake Off away from the BBC, said she would be “absolutely delighted” with an audience of five, six or seven million.

She added: “This show is break-even for Channel 4 at around three million.”

An audience of three million would represent a collapse compared with the record-breaking final BBC series, however. Its final episode in October drew an average of 14 million viewers.

Ms Hunt’s comment that she would be delighted with as few as five million viewers contrasts with the view of Paul Hollywood. The judge said this week that an audience of eight million would represent a “slump” that would mean “we need to change something”.

Ms Hunt, who will leave Channel 4 this year after failing to get the broadcaster’s top job, said she had been encouraged by rave reviews for the new incarnation, which introduces presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig.

Channel 4, owned by the taxpayer but self-funded through advertising, aims to use Bake Off to cross-subsidise less popular programming, such as Islamic extremism drama The State.