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ITV boss Kevin Lygo has revealed the hit drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office made a loss of around a million pounds.
This comes despite the roaring audience reaction and the four-part series being sold to a host of foreign broadcasters.
Starring the likes of Will Mellor, Toby Jones and Monica Dolan, the drama took the country by storm, and launched one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK history back into the spotlight.
It followed the story of former sub postmaster Alan Bates who lost his Post Office in north Wales after being accused of theft, and soon discovered that he was not alone, with hundreds of others who had been affected by the scandal, but had done nothing wrong.
Dozens of innocent people were convicted of theft, lost their homes and went into debt, and 236 went to prison. Four people also took their own lives.
The programme prompted public outrage and help put the Horizon scandal under the spotlight.
Lygo, the managing director of media and entertainment of ITV, told the Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) spring conference on Wednesday: ‘Mr Bates has made a loss of something like a million pounds and we can’t continually do this.
‘Of course, some things are very profitable on the channel, and some things aren’t.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office told the shocking true story of the Horizon scandal (Picture: ITV)
‘But it’s a challenge to be able to fund some of the things that aren’t, obviously, of international appeal.
‘We’re hoping this may be because it caused such a furore here that maybe sales will pick up, but there’s no evidence of it yet.
‘If you’re in Lithuania, four hours on the British Post Office? Not really, thank you very much. So you can see the challenges here.’
He said the challenge for mainstream television broadcasters at the moment is ‘getting enough audiences to turn up on the night’ to watch their shows.
Lygo explained that five or six years ago, they would have expected a show like Mr Bates to bring in around six or seven million viewers but that now an overnight audience rating of four million is as ‘good as you get’.
The ITV boss also said he knew the show was ’emotional’ and ‘well told’ after the first watch, but admitted he did not realise how much of a stir it would cause.
The show brought the issue back to the attention of the public and parliament, with the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells later announcing she planned to hand back her CBE following the scandal.
The series starred Toby Jones as Alan Bates who soon discovered he was not alone (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)
Will Mellor played sub post-master Lee Castleton (Picture: ITV)
Lygo said: ‘These days, it is harder and harder to guess in advance now what something is going to do and whether people will turn up at all.
‘There is so much choice and competition …read more
Source:: Metro
