‘The Voice’ Silenced

Efforts to put acts from BBC1 talent show “The Voice” on the road have been scrapped because not enough people were interested in listening.

An 11-date UK arena tour due to start at Bournemouth International Centre Sept. 12 has been wiped, with organisers citing low ticket sales.

The programme’s eight finalists were to also play Cardiff, London, Brighton, Birmingham, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.

Tour promoter Live Nation is telling ticket-holders to contact their point of purchase for refunds.

The cancellation wasn’t a big surprise to many who work in the UK’s live music industry.

Last week an “established” but unnamed tour promoter told the Daily Mirror: “Do they really think that they can sell 160,000 tickets at £40 a pop when they couldn’t even keep people watching on the telly for free?”

In April the TV talent show was attracting 10 million viewers but it had tumbled to 4.5 million by the end of the series.
The winning single, Leanne Mitchell’s “Run To You,” didn’t make the Top 40.

A week ago, Broadcast magazine reported that Wall To Wall, which produced the TV series, went £650,000 over budget.

The series is still likely to return in 2013 as Broadcast reckons The Beeb has invested £22 million in a two-year deal with TV production company Talpa, which owns the show’s format and has reproduced it worldwide.

The BBC was among the TV stations that did better with The Eurovision Song Contest.

On June 19, the European Broadcasting Union announced it had 64 million television viewers for the 2012 Grand Final May 26, plus a further 39 million across the two semi-finals in the week leading up to it.