Saturday, July 11, 2009

ITV exec admits they mishandled

July 11, 2009

Susan Boyle posts/videos/interviews

Who didn’t know that?

Simon Cowell waited until the show was over and Ms Boyle was a success on the Britain’s Got Talent Show to come forward and admit he mishandled her. Now that the BGT Tour is over and they’ve made their money off Ms Boyle, ITV is doing the same. ITV’s recently resigned Executive Chairman, Sir Michael Grade spoke to BBC Radio 5. Here are some of his quotes per GERARD MCGARRY of UK’s UnrealityTV.com

GRADE:

Nobody has been that famous that quickly in that short space of time, within days, within hours of the show.

She threw herself into it all and probably didn’t pace herself. I mean, we didn’t pace her well enough. There were American news networks wanting interviews with her, Japanese networks wanting interviews with her and that demand, it was pretty exhausting.

If you were an established star used to dealing with it, you would have found it pretty exhausting, so it was a difficult time for her dealing with all this stuff.

But it was just an extraordinary situation and why shouldn’t she enjoy her success? She’s waited all her life.

Why not. And did she?

How much responsibility did they have in protecting her from the astonishing brutal UK press? It’s not like they didn’t know what the press is like.

And how much money did she make off the show, the YouTube videos and the BGT Tour versus the revenue she brought in for them?

It’s wrong. Especially since her future is not guaranteed. Not her singing or record sales – her ability to keep coping over the long haul. Even if she got one millionth of a penny per hit from YouTube she would be a millionaire.

Per BBC.com, Grade said ITV is hoping to introduce pay-per-view online clips of Britain’s Got Talent online at 25p to 50p per view. (50p is about 82 cents.) ITV didn’t broadcast online this season because a) they weren’t expecting someone like Ms Boyle and b) because they were greedy. TV advertising was completely sold out but “an advertising deal with the file-sharing network was not in place after a “derisory” offer from YouTube” probably cost them £1.3m. They lost much more than that since they estimated the finals were watched only by 20 million viewers.

Imagine if they would have simulcasted it in the US or online?

Ms Boyle had been on the morning talks shows, Larry King, Anderson Cooper and of course, Oprah. They would have had a huge audience. They totally used Ms Boyle and as much money as they made they could have made a lot more. Now they’re banking on another Ms Boyle?

Never happen.

Though they did some nifty marketing of Shaheen Jafargholi by getting him to sing at Michael Jackson’s send off. Reportedly Nickelodeon and Disney are interested in him for TV.

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