Ad chief questions CBB move to E4

A senior advertising buyer has questioned Channel 4's decision to move Celebrity Big Brother, in the form of Celebrity Hijack, to E4.

The director of a media planning and buying agency, speaking to MediaGuardian anonymously, said the move could cost 30% in advertising revenue because of lower prices on the digital channel. Audiences for E4 are about 35-50% smaller compared to its terrestrial parent.

The broadcaster decided to move the show to E4, with a slightly altered format, to "rest" the programme because of slipping ratings and last year's racism row.

But the director said it had not found a long-term solution: "This is like a test, a safety valve, to protect a key audience year-on-year. However I think that it is a landfill rather than a solution, it is not an alternative."

However, Chris Hayward, the head of investment at ZenithOptimedia, said the move would help build E4 as a brand.

"Being on E4 is part of a strategy to make E4 well developed in the digital world," he explained. "It may not be as developed as the main channel but it is becoming increasingly important, over the next five years the strategy has to be to make the family of digital channels as strong as can be.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: "Big Brother is a very important show for Channel 4 and the network, it is very popular with a core part of our audience. We felt that airing it on E4 is a good way to refresh the format and have more fun with it."