How much does TG worth?

Nouvelle Chicane

Nouvelle Chicane

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Oct 13, 2005
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I've been a TG fan for over 3 years now and i've seen just about every episodes since then and i love the crazy stunts and experiments they've done... and some of them don't come cheap at all :D

The most expensive stunt that i can remember was the test of the 747's Jet Thrust experiment where they drove a couple of remote controlled cars behind a 747 with the jets on full throttle in hope that they would flip, that must've cost heaps don't u think?

That's just one of many examples... makes me think how much does the show actually worth??? does anyone have any idea?
 
And still, I reckon that maybe the Bugatti thing was the most expensive, as long as you take the cost of post production into consideration. That was what, 9 days for a full team? Didn't Jezza say on topgear.com that it was the most expensive?

Yeah, I guess they got loads of money... And lots of good people.
 
Buba said:
And still, I reckon that maybe the Bugatti thing was the most expensive, as long as you take the cost of post production into consideration. That was what, 9 days for a full team? Didn't Jezza say on topgear.com that it was the most expensive?

Yeah, I guess they got loads of money... And lots of good people.
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And yet they still managed to run out of money one season.
 
^ I take it that you were joking... ;-)
 
They must get a decent budget, think about some of the preperaton that goes into stunts and reviews, also the Buy a Car challenges, ?30,000 for the Supercars one. Next thing i want to know is there wages
 
Im sure I read somewhere it has the largest budget of any BBC production.
 
If you can call a guy and then have a Pagani Zonda F or a Bugatti Veyron the next day, you sure have alot of money! The Winter Olympic episode shows how much power the show has. I haven't heard of anyone else, who are allowed to race around a speedskating track in a Jag.
 
the wintr olympics were surely expensive...renting all those sites must have cost a bit.

as for cost/value, i think one of the last episodes beats everything. they had one scene there in which a fighter jet goes over the track parralel to the car...the scene was half a second long and the only appearence of the jet. i mean bringing a apache for a whole test is allright, but a fighter jet only for half a second...thats typical over the top yet absolutely incredible top gear automotive pornography. ;)
 
it's certainly expensive to run a show like that , but I don't mind , that's why it's such a great entertainment show .In fact this is the only show I would be ready to give money for....luckely for me all UK BBC viewers already do that very kindly(btw thanks :p )
 
I wonder where the insurance is for a show like Top Gear. Like does Top Gear have it's own policy if somthing happens, or would the BBC cover?

Only reason I ask is because that would be quite a hefty amount of money.
 
apack said:
If you can call a guy and then have a Pagani Zonda F or a Bugatti Veyron the next day, you sure have alot of money!
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They call up the Pagani or Bugatti PR person and get a 'test car' - they don't pay to hire it; as it's free PR for the company when it appears on screen.


The Winter Olympic episode shows how much power the show has. I haven't heard of anyone else, who are allowed to race around a speedskating track in a Jag.
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There's always a chance they never told Jaguar what they were going to use the XK for.

no boss said:
I wonder where the insurance is for a show like Top Gear. Like does Top Gear have it's own policy if somthing happens, or would the BBC cover?

Only reason I ask is because that would be quite a hefty amount of money.
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I've no idea for Top Gear, but for evo magazine's Car Of The Year 2005 feature, they paid a ?10,000 insurance excess. They had 8 road testers / photographers, were away in France for 4 days, and the following cars : Ford GT, TVR Sagaris, Lambo Gallardo SE, Ferrari F430, Porsche Cayman, Aston V8 Vantage, BMW M6, Merc SLK55, BMW M3 CS and Renault Clio 182 Trophy [!].

Weyhey for useless automotive trivia!
 
Just think about it.

The cars are free, the sets aren't too expensive them being just old cars and lighting rigs, Hamster and May aren't on exclusive contracts (So less money in wages for them than, say, Clarkson), and most of the stuff they use in the show is old junk (Caravans, ?1000 cars etc) or real locations (Quarries, the sea, the Nurburgring). A lot of the pieces are about enthusiast stuff (The man who demolished his kitchen to get the car out, the remote control full size car etc) and that covers most of the show...

The two main real expenses are 1. the crew and 2. The editing facilities (Which being as this is the BBC are merely a notional value, as the BBC has already bought the equipment). This is why the pieces are normally filmed in one condensed chunk before the series proper (cutting down on the amount of time you need insurance for, the amount of time you need camera crews for and so on).

I doubt it's a cheap show compared to some things out there but it really must be when you consider how much the BBC licence it out to other countries for. The ratings here could go really low and the BBC wouldn't care any more so long as they got to sell it to other countries (They'd move it to BBC3 or 4 if ratings did drop).

Top Gear is great free advertising for any company, and the military stuff will probably be done for free because it gives a new situation for an army squad as well as showing the more fun side of "Our lads at the front" (The M.O.D. love to do this stuff, the more we think the army is about climbing everest, blowing up safes, and tracking down cars in a tank the better).

Think about it this way. Doctor Who tallies in at ?1,000,000 an episode with 7m viewers. Top Gear gets around 5m viewers an episode making it the top watched BBC2 programme by almost 1m viewers.... I reckon the BBC would be up for speding at least ?800,000 an episode on TG.
 
As us Brits pay the license fee they can't hide the budget if we ask them. I have looked throught the Annual Report but they only have budgets for types of programmes, not specific programmes.
 
How many car shows can there be on BBC? :p

But yeah, it must be expensive.

And thinking of the Olympic Episode, we are talking about Norway. I guess we have the most car hostile laws this side of Switzerland! And getting permit to blow a Mini down the Skijump at Holmenkollen, that must have taken A LOT of lobbying and quite a lot of money.. :)
 
Every time they use an aerial shot, that costs shitloads of money.
I mean, 1 hour of flying can easily cost up to €1000. (incl chopper & pilot)
The Bugatti challenge; renting 2 planes (one for May & Hammond and one to follow them around) for the entire day, not what you'd call cheap :]
 
I dont think they would of rented a helicopter. Come on its the bbc they probably have one just for filming in. Probably the pilot would get paid out of the BBC budget not from top gear.

Like network stations in australia all have helicopter, but im sure they get used for lots and lots of things more than just filming. I dont know about you but if i was going to be using a helicopter that much and i was a huge company. Id just buy one work out being way cheaper.

If we are talking about a private jet then sure u could lease it but i dont see why they would be paying $1000 an hour. I really think they owuld just own the helicopter (or the bbc would) and hire a pilot (might also just work for the bbc)

Still yes i think it would be like $700 000-1 000 000 each episode, of course dpending on the episode but meh, they work just like a business so no doubt they would be getting more money out of it than what they are putting into it.
 
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