Show now costs too much d'oh

The BBC is to lose The Simpsons after walking away from talks on securing the series.

Rival bidders pushed the price up to what the corporation called 'ludicrous levels', which it felt it could not afford.

BBC2 has screened the show for the past six years, paying around £100,000 an episode.

But the bidding war has pushed the price up to seven times that figure, and channel controller Jane Root said she could not justify spending that sort of licence-payers money.

Channels 4 and 5 are thought to still be in the bidding.

The show will not disappear from BBC2 immediately. The corporation has brought six of the 11 series so far made, three of which have not been screened terrestrially at all.

But whoever channel wins the rights to series 12 will be able to show repeats within months, and can start showing new episodes from 2004.

A BBC spokesman said: "Following vastly inflated bids from rival terrestrial channels, the BBC has decided to walk away from the negotiating table.

"Jane Root decided that the cost of The Simpsons was too high to justify being paid for out of the licence fee."

BBC2 is due to start showing The Simpsons five times a week from next Monday.

The show has proved a ratings stalwart for the channel. In the latest official figures it was BBC2's seventh most popular show, attracting 3.6million viewers and beaten only by The Weakest Link and the long-lost episodes of Dad's Army.

Published: 17 Feb 2002