Great British Bake Off to be sponsored by Lyle's Golden Syrup and Dr Oetker

The Great British Bake Off has found its final ingredients, with the kitchen cupboard staple Lyle’s golden syrup and Dr Oetker, the baking product maker, signing multi-million pound deals to be the first sponsors of the biggest show on British television.

The hunt for a sponsor has been one of the biggest-ever charm offensives undertaken by Channel 4 – which included presenters Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith appearing at an event designed to woo some of the UK’s biggest-spending brands – but it did not cook up an X-Factor-sized deal on its first outing.

Given the show is a national favourite, with 14 million viewers watching the final last year, representing more than half the viewing public, making it the biggest show of 2016, there was expected to be an advertising bun fight following its move from the commercial-free environs of the BBC.

Yet, while both sponsors are a perfect brand fit, they are not known as major TV advertisers. The famous green-and-gold cans of Lyle’s only returned to TV advertising for the first time in a quarter of a century last year. Dr Oetker, the German baking ingredients maker, has never sponsored a prime-time TV show.

They are thought to have jointly paid about £4m to sponsor the first series, this year’s Christmas specials and the Jo Brand-fronted spin-off Bake Off: an Extra Slice. Paul Hollywood’s spin-off, A Baker’s Life, is not part of the sponsorship deal.

Channel 4 had originally pitched opening bids at the £8m mark for what was expected to be a sole brand, although that was originally for a bigger package that included the second series.

ITV’s entertainment big beasts The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent struck sponsorship deals earlier this year worth £10m and £6m annually respectively.

However, Channel 4 has been faced with a significant downturn in the TV ad market since the Brexit referendum, which has seen advertisers tighten the purse strings. Food brands – the third-biggest TV spending sector –are down more than 14% in TV advertising spend for the year to the end of March.

Channel 4’s relaunch of Bake Off, which also includes newly arrived hosts Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, has to prove it retains the recipe for success with viewers for budget-watching advertisers to come out in force next year.

Jonathan Lewis, head of digital and partnership innovation at Channel 4, said that bringing on board two brands has been common in the past, such as with the channel’s hugely successful coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics.

“With big-ticket, highly demanded shows, it makes sense to look at dual sponsorship strategies,” he said. “From a viewer perspective, it is a natural fit and from a TV perspective, it’s great to encourage brands like Dr Oetker and Lyle’s golden syrup, which haven’t been sponsoring shows or running ads for some time, to bring them back to TV.”

Last week, signs emerged that Britain’s home-baking boom may be running out of steam as the amount of staple baking ingredients sold by supermarkets fell 3.8% in the year to the end of March. Of the major brands, only Dr Oetker increased sales volumes.

After paying £75m to poach Bake Off from the BBC, Channel 4 needs to make at least £25m over its three-year deal with Love Productions, the maker of the show, to avoid the equivalent of a commercial soggy bottom.

Most revenues will come from selling TV ads and packages, at premium prices of as much as £200,000 for a 30-second slot. “In the last week, there has been a significant step change in sales,” Lewis said. “We have already fully sold out the first show. We are now close to starting to fill up the whole series.”