For Broadcast May 31, 2007

When the cognoscenti thought the Big Brother brand was running out of steam earlier this year, we got Shilpa Shetty and the biggest national racism story this side of an Enoch Powell speech.

Ofcom's critical report on the bullying of the Bollywood star on Celebrity BB ruled the broadcaster was guilty of "serious editorial misjudgment" but, with the real-life crazies (as opposed to the celebrity ones) entering the BB8 house this week, what will be the impact of all this bad publicity on the programme and channel revenues?

It seems the old adage is true: all publicity is good publicity. BB - whether the normal version or the celebrity spin-off - is C4's cash cow; it can reach 8 million viewers and is said to account for 10% of the channel's entire revenues.

Okay, so Carphone Warehouse may have withdrawn its L3m Celebrity BB sponsorship (it's been title sponsor since series five), but Virgin Media has stepped in to fill the gap for series eight.

Meanwhile, the media buyers say that the race row has actually made their job easier, if anything. "The irony of the Ofcom ruling is that it's raised the profile of the show outside the industry. It's effectively launched the new series," says Simon George, founding partner of sponsorship specialist Drum.

Online revenues

It seems that advertisers and media agencies are still beating down the door for BB: the show has continued to flick the switches of the key 18 to 34-year-old demographic like no other.

For example, website ad sales have been doubling year on year in terms of volume and value. The pre-roll ads running before the BB downloaded clips can be worth L80 each - that's 40 times the standard market rate. The -appetite for this demographic is so strong that BB's digital revenues are expected to top L1m this year. So much for Ofcom's ruling hurting the economics of the BB brand.

The key factor, however, will be the viewing figures for series eight. If they are significantly down from either this time last year or from the Celebrity BB numbers in January, then C4 may start to wonder whether it has a -problem with its number one brand.

More viewers mean more power to BB and C4 will fight tooth and nail to save the show. In fact, series numbers nine, 10 and 11 are already in the pipeline.

The channel has a tightrope to balance between "tough new intervention policies" for BB and making sure that the next series doesn't become so insipid and predictable that viewers turn off.

Right now, it seems the chattering classes are the main people criticising the show (and C4 by association), but their voices will only grow louder and more powerful if viewers begin to lose interest or if mistakes like Jade uttering the words "Shilpa Poppadom" are compounded.

Political football

At that point, BB becomes a political football. C4 has been pleading poverty, claiming it needs financial or some other kind of help from the government to survive the fragmenting media landscape.

The Shilpa row has put the idea of C4 being privatised back onto the table. One more "poppadom problem" and the idea of -privatisation could move centre stage. The channel could be worth anything up to L1bn, and our soon-to-be installed prime minister might have a surprising view on privatisation.

Maybe C4 chief Andy Duncan should move into the house for Big Brother 8. It might be the best way of ensuring he stops the latest bunch of lunatics from getting his own -asylum taken over.