Next years judges for the Beeb’s last series of The Voice: Ricky Wilson, Paloma Faith, Boy George and will.i.am

The Voice UK’s fifth series begins in January and is to be the last of the popular talent show’s 4 year run on the BBC.

It has been announced that after the BBC’s acquisition of TV talent show ‘The Voice’ in 2012 the torch is now being passed on to ITV. It’s reported that ITV paid £22 million for broadcasting rights to The Voice, twice as much as the BBC were paying yearly for the series.

Mark Linsey, BBC acting director of television, confirmed next years fifth series of the show would be its last for the Beeb, saying:”The BBC is incredibly proud of The Voice, but the fifth series which starts in January will be our last.

“We always said we wouldn’t get into a bidding war or pay inflated prices to keep the show, and it’s testament to how the BBC has built the programme up – and established it into a mainstay of the Saturday night schedule – that another broadcaster has poached it.”

ITV’s acquisition of The Voice raises questions about the future of their existing, massively successful talent show ‘The X Factor’ which has seen ratings fall recently. With Britain’s Got Talent in the roster of talent shows on the ITV it doesn’t seem likely that all will remain, and there are rumours that Sky may acquire The X Factor if it is dropped by ITV.

Simon Cowell’s show The X Factor, which has seen spin offs in countries around the world, stooped to its lowest viewer count in 11 years in the UK on last Sunday’s show. It would appear that ITV’s acquisition is an attempt to create more of the same but using the fresh branding to boost ratings back up.

ITV had bid for The Voice initially four years ago but lost out to the BBC in a £20 million deal. Creator of The Voice and reality show Big Brother, Dutch media magnate John de Mol’s production company ‘Talpa’ is also now owned by ITV Studios which no doubt helped the arrangement.

Tune in for The Voice’s fifth and last series on the BBC in January 2016 on the BBC 1 where judges Ricky Wilson, Boy George, Paloma Faith and will.i.am will curate the talent of a selected 200.