Chat Back: What is the point?

Tonight I was thinking “Why the hell can’t ChatBack even be bothered to broadcast a live show?”

I decided to research how much it would actually cost to put ChatBack on the air.


First: you need an Ofcom Licence .. Approx £7k per year paid for 3 years in advance. So £21K

Second: Acquire transponder space for transmission via Sky. Sky also charge for EPG listings.

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_file...ceList.pdf

Sky EPG Slot: £80K per year.
Transponder space: £250K per year.
(Double that cost as ChatBack have two channels)
Playout (ie from source to uplink): around £120K per year. So £660K

Third: Studio space: Central London around £25K per year.

Fourth: Playout facilities:
VTR or a video server: A Digibeta or D1 VTR can cost around £40k. Realistically you will need two of them.
Betacam SP VTR £15k plus
Vision switcher and sound desk £10k
MPEG Encoding and uplink equipment £10k. So £115K

Start up costs= Well over £1,000,000.
And that is all before you hire a single Girl, a producer or a camera operator.

Can April/Abbey and Amy (occasionally) turning up for a few hours a day make over £1,000,000 a year and generate a profit for this company?

you seriously have too much time on your hands mate lol

funkymackem Wrote:you seriously have too much time on your hands mate lol

And it would seem that ChatBack have too much money in their pockets, since they seem unwilling to make any type of return on the £1,000,000 that they have spent so far.

Any idea why the seem unwilling to broadcast live?

vostok 1 Wrote:

funkymackem Wrote:you seriously have too much time on your hands mate lol

And it would seem that ChatBack have too much money in their pockets, since they seem unwilling to make any type of return on the £1,000,000 that they have spent so far.

Any idea why the seem unwilling to broadcast live?

Thanks for this research, it's very interesting.

I too am at a loss - at first I thought it was because they were moving studios, but given that the day shows are obviously coming from their usual base this doesn't seem to be the case.

Even if they were moving studios, as the existing studio is still up and running there's nothing to stop them running a night time show in the meantime.

Therefore, maybe they don't have the cash liquidity at the moment to pay models and staff to run a night show;

Or perhaps they are deliberately trying to engineer a financial loss which they can carry over to other aspects of the business, thus reducing tax liability across the group. Although losing money from a balance sheet point of view, Chatback would still be pulling in substantial revenue which could be used to fund other activities;

Or perhaps they are experiencing licensing issues again, given that they're too mean to buy a proper general entertainment licence.

All of the above are wild guesses because the activities of David Wainwright and his company Springdoo Media haven't made an iota of sense since Chatback started!

Wainwright seems to be one of those annoying people who is a complete arse yet somehow sails through life making money anyway.

Edit: I just realised that in your costings you haven't factored in the cost of phone lines and equipment, nor telecom facilities. Even more expense!

A Tax loss (theory) has been suggested several times before.
ChatBack previously operated as "Go Ape TV." They seem to be overdue on their tax:
GO APE T.V. LIMITED
GO APE T.V.
WATERSIDE HOUSE 47 KENTISH TOWN ROAD
LONDON
W1 8NX
Company No. 06522399
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 04/03/2008

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Company Type: Private Limited Company

Accounting Reference Date: 31/03
Last Accounts Made Up To: (NO ACCOUNTS FILED)
Next Accounts Due: 04/01/2010
Last Return Made Up To:
Next Return Due: 01/04/2009 OVERDUE

Details for Springdoo:
SPRINGDOO MEDIA LIMITED
THE COURTYARD
CHAPEL LANE, BODICOTE
BANBURY
OXFORDSHIRE
OX15 4DB
Company No. 04488185

Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 17/07/2002

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Company Type: Private Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC(03)):
9220 - Radio and television activities
Last Accounts Made Up To: 30/11/2007 (TOTAL EXEMPTION SMALL)
Next Accounts Due: 30/09/2009
Last Return Made Up To: 17/07/2008
Next Return Due: 14/08/2009

Previous Names:
20/12/2002 BANSOLSY LIMITED
29/03/2005 FRIENDLYTV LIMITED
13/05/2008 TELECOMSTV LIMITED


I think people put a lot of faith in the "Big Boss" to suggest his way of currently running ChatBack is part of a "holding pattern" or "creative accounting". Look at his past history:

FRIENDLY TV: Running live roulette and other games without realising you need a gambling licence.
Bedroom TV: (Original concept) have people at home sing along to popular music hits, completely forgetting that they would have to pay royalties equaling hundreds of thousands to record companies.

I seem to remember Hexit saying that ChatBack do have the correct broadcast licence, and that the details on the ofcom site haven't been updated yet.

I am sure Mr Wainwright is a member here. He has a habit of posting on the Digital Spy forums, pretending to be someone else, asking for feedback on his service, ignoring the feedback and finally admitting it is him.

Juliet is still logging in here. Since she is now management at ChatBack, perhaps she could tell us what the future holds?

Digital Dave Wrote:Edit: I just realised that in your costings you haven't factored in the cost of phone lines and equipment, nor telecom facilities. Even more expense!

I got the idea that this part of the ChatBack operation is supplied at no cost by 24 Seven communications in exchange for a revenue split.

I also find the research vostok did pretty interesting, I know nothing of TV and broadcasting. I wonder if you can 'sub-let' in some way from a company that has already paid for all the equipment and connections and so on. Like hosting for websites. You know, they have loads of servers and ultra high bandwidth, sell it off a bit at a time. Same with TV facilities?

edit: quick sum £1.50 * 60 * 24 * 365 == £788400.0

vostok 1 Wrote:A Tax loss (theory) has been suggested several times before.
ChatBack previously operated as "Go Ape TV." They seem to be overdue on their tax:
GO APE T.V. LIMITED
GO APE T.V.

etc

My God Mate thats bloody impressive,you dont have a team of Private Investigators helping you do you? Or the combined resources of CIA,MI5,MI6,DTI,CID,FBI,KGB,Homeland Security.Inland Revenue etc
Remind me to stay on your good side because not sure Id want you on my case (lol)

mrwotzup Wrote:Remind me to stay on your good side because not sure Id want you on my case (lol)

After posting your pics on the Tila Tequila thread, you could mug my Grandma and still be on my good side!

Very interesting stuff vostok, thanks for the information mate .