TV boss Kevin Lygo slams ‘peculiar’ way BBC used huge TV audiences during the Euros to plug old American shows like Suits and Gossip Girl over homegrown British content

ITV‘s top programming boss has hit out at the way the BBC used its huge TV audiences during the Euro 2024 football tournament to plug old US shows it had bought, at the expense of its own British content.

Kevin Lygo said he could not understand when the BBC was struggling to fund shows like Newsnight that it could find the cash to outbid rivals for American series like Gossip Girl and Suits, which stars Meghan Markle.

ITV has been concerned for a long time about the way the BBC uses licence fee cash to outbid them for US shows, fearing it is driving up prices for other UK broadcasters.

He said it was ‘peculiar’ the way the BBC repeatedly ran promotional plugs, for what it called ‘Explosive US Drama’, during England games during the Euros, which have got the biggest audiences of the year.

Throughout the tournament, including at half-time of the final, Gary Lineker introduced the trailer, which featured clips from American shows including Suits, The Dropout, Gossip Girl, Snowfall, Pretty Little Liars and Dopesick.

Kevin Lygo said he could not understand when the BBC was struggling to fund shows like Newsnight that it could find the cash to outbid rivals for American series like Gossip Girl and Suits

Mr Lygo said it was ‘peculiar’ the way the BBC repeatedly ran promotional plugs, for what it called ‘Explosive US Drama’, during England games during the Euros (Pictured: Meghan Markle appearing in Suits)

Speaking on an ITV half-year results call, Mr Lygo told journalists: ‘I was a bit surprised to see such promotional airtime given to some re-runs or ‘pre-loved’, as we call it now, American programming.

‘It’s just I don’t quite understand why when the BBC are falling on so much difficulty with money and the cost of programming and so forth and struggling to fund something like Newsnight properly, that they can find the money to buy Suits and Gossip Girl and things like that.’

He added on the repeated plugging of US drama during the Euros: ‘I don’t know why they choose to do that. It does seem peculiar.’

This comes after an ITV boss recently hit out at the BBC for buying the rights to a US legal drama starring the Duchess of Sussex – just as it ‘bleats’ about budget cuts.

Kevin Lygo, ITV’s programming chief, has previously criticised the way the the publicly funded broadcaster had ‘outbid’ his own company to acquire the show Suits.

Speaking at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer spring conference in London in April, Mr Lygo said it was not a good way of using of licence fee money, adding: ‘You hear the BBC bleating about it [lower budgets for programming] and yet they have all the money in the world.

BBC Newsnight, which famously hosted Emily Maitlis’ interview with Prince Andrew, has been reduced in length and had its funding cut

Mr Lygo previously criticised the way the the publicly funded broadcaster had ‘outbid’ his own company to acquire the show Suits

‘Why do they buy all that American stuff? I have had a go at so many different BBC people about this.

‘They just bought Suits, you know the thing with Meghan Markle in. You think why? They outbid us. What’s that got to do with licence fee payers’ money?’

ITV has been concerned for a long time about the way the BBC competes for the rights for foreign shows, with concerns it is driving the price up for rivals.

It has previously said the BBC is buying up expensive US shows to ‘maximise’ younger audience viewing figures.

Earlier this year the corporation announced it had acquired all nine seasons of Suits, with Meghan playing paralegal character Rachel Zane.

Ofcom told the BBC last year it needed to be more transparent about its strategy for buying foreign shows. It said it needed to explain how acquiring foreign shows instead of making its own British programmes helped ‘distinctiveness’.

In a submission to Ofcom, ITV had said: ‘The first issue with the BBC acquiring mainstream third-party content is that it sits uncomfortably with its mission to be distinctive and take creative risks… The BBC competes against other broadcasters, such as ITV, inflating the price at which the content is purchased.’

A BBC spokesperson said: ‘Our spend on acquisitions remains very small compared to our overall budget, where we are the largest producer of originated programmes in the UK. We spend less than 5 per cent of our annual content budget on acquired programmes, far less compared with other broadcasters. Recent promotional trailers have featured original and acquired scripted series to highlight the wide range of content available on BBC iPlayer.’