Amazon announced today that it signed on as The Great British Bake Offs headline sponsor this year.
The deal is reportedly worth £5m — one of the largest sponsorships in UK entertainment history — and the shows ninth season will bake in the capabilities of virtual assistant Alexa as well as the Echo smart speakers.
Amazons mouth-watering deal also umbrellas Great British Bake Off spinoffs, such as special episodes for holidays, ones with celebrity features and Bake Off: An Extra Slice, hosted by Jo Brand. Even comedian Tom Allen is getting involved by taking a crack at hosting the spinoff show, Bake Off: The Professionals, this year.
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“Its a great testimony to the success of Bake Offs debut on Channel 4 last year that Amazon will sponsor the Bake Off programme brands this year,” Jonathan Lewis, the head of digital and partnership innovation at Channel 4 said.
The Great British Bake Off finale last season attracted more than 10m viewers and had a 36.9 per cent share of audience per episode, which was the largest audience Channel 4 has ever attracted since it began using its current viewer tracking system.
Channel 4 bought Great British Bake Off from the BBC in 2016 for £75m, after the BBC refused to pay £25m per year to continue broadcasting the show. It is now the biggest show in the country and is especially popular among young people — which fits Amazons target 18-36-year-old target audience — and is the most watched series among that age group.
Judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood will return to judge the new season along with Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding. And in a sweet new partnership with Netflix, all seven seasons when the show aired on BBC will be available online starting this weekend.
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