Background

Some useful data:

• The UK spends more per head on TV than any other country in the world.
• 80,000 people are employed in the British TV industry.
• Every day £13 million is spent on television in the UK.
• There are over 600 independent production companies in the UK.
• ITV now has 23.9% of the audience share - but this has dramatically declined since the 1960s. However, it broadcast 15 of the Top 20 programmes in 2003.
• I'm a Celebrity … regularly tops 10 million viewers nightly, peaking at 15.7 million for the final show in February 2004.
• The BBC currently earns £3 billion per year in guaranteed income from the licence fee. Its current Royal Charter expires at the end of 2006. BBC1 only screened 5 of the Top 20 programmes in 2003.
• Big Brother was developed from an early Dutch prototype called The Golden Cage. An average BB episode now pulls 5 million viewers, rising to 10 million at the peak of the series.