ITV has announced that the critically acclaimed drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has lost the company £1 million.
The news will come as a surprise for many considering the show's huge success, becoming ITV’s biggest new drama in over a decade when it was released in early 2024, even beating the launch of Downton Abbey in 2010.
The first episode was watched by 9.2 million viewers, with the four episodes being the most watched programmes on any channel so far this year. The series has reached 14.8 million views in total including the real-life documentary that was made to accompany the drama.
But despite the huge success of the show, Kevin Lygo, the managing director of media and entertainment of ITV has revealed that the show actually cost ITV money rather than bringing in a profit.
He told the Voice of the Listener & Viewer spring conference on Wednesday, April 24 "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. But it's a challenge to be able to fund some of the things that aren't, obviously, of international appeal."
He went on to say that due to the lack of international interest in the show, ITV is yet to see it making any money. "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," he continued.
"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."
The drama follows Alan Bates (Toby Jones), a sub-postmaster who decided to fight back against a scandalous miscarriage of justice. He was one of thousands of sub-postmasters who were falsely accused of theft due to the flawed Horizon computerized accounting system. More than 700 were prosecuted and several went to prison while others lost their homes and life savings trying to pay back the money the Post Office claimed was missing.
However, despite this latest news, the show has made TV history after having a stunning effect on British politics, with the show discussed widely in parliament and on news broadcasts and the British government acting quickly to legislate to alleviate the worst miscarriage of justice in UK history.
You can stream all four episodes of Mr Bates vs The Post Office on ITVX.
U.S. viewers can watch the drama for free on PBS Masterpiece on Sundays at 9 pm ET.
