Clarkson's Farm

[Jellybean]

Thanks for the recommendation, arsenal. I have seen the trailers to the show and read a couple of reviews, but, unfortunately, I don’t have Amazon. If I did have it, I would certainly watch it as I do like Jeremy Clarkson.

Amazon Prime is about £8.99 per month and can very easily be cancelled after 1 month via the Amazon website menus (last time I looked).
Series such as The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm might justify 1~2 months subscriptions.

Thanks goji. I did check up on the cost of Amazon after first reading arsenal’s post, but in addition to my Sky subscription, I already pay £9.99 per month for Netflix and I rarely find the time to watch it as much as I want. But I saw that Amazon is offering a 30 day free trial and, as you say, I could cancel after one or two months. Hmmm . . .?

[gerefan2]

Every time I buy something from Amazon they give me a free subscription to Amazon Prime for a month. I get free next day delivery.

After 1 month I have to pay.

As soon as it arrives I cancel it. No charge.

[arsenal]

Finished the series in about 2 days and I can't believe how much I'm missing It, so much so that I've started the whole thing again.

It ends with the instrumental, Classical Gas. Play it, it's the most poignant piece of music ever.

[Nirish guy]

Dont worry weirdly its been such a smash hit on Prime that Season two is already well underway in the planning apparently.

So, ironically for a show that was based around just how hard it is to farm and make a living, Jeremy it seems, unlike many REAL farmers out there, no longer needs to concern himself with "actually" turning a profit ( not that he ever did anyway of course) as his commissioning cheque from Amazon will MORE than cover any (for TV) losses he makes I'm guessing.

It's actually the one part of the show where I wish they would keep it even half real in terms of any TRUE profit and loss results as to his efforts as obviously his end of year £140 "profit" could be and was no doubt massaged for TV effect.

It would be interesting to see the TRUE figures - as obviously in a normal business all the equipment he bought would then be amortised over the next few years etc - none of which I assume was done for season one of course.

Mind you for all the talk of how bad farming is for providing a decent income I don't know about the rest of you but I've YET to meet a POOR farmer here where I ilive as the most of them i know all driver top fo the range Merc's along with the wives always having their latest new 4x 4 model to hand too !

[goji]

#1 I think Clarkson's £144 profit was before subsidies.

#2 From what I see, farmers who know how to farm seem to make good money at it and buy up adjacent farms as the owners retire. Of course, they have to work at it and I expect that if they subtracted hours worked, the ROCE (Return On Capital Employed) for the business would be terrible.

#3 In the UK, offspring of farmers do anything from carrying on the farm to going off to university, starting a tech company and making millions.

#4 As with everything Clarkson does, there is a lot of cocking things up according to a script. However, he's very good at it and the show makes great entertainment.

[arsenal]

Yes. Take away the capital outlay on farm equipment (It's been a working farm for years) , the shop, the pond and the 'cast' and there's a profit of about £300'000 +.

Clarkson's tv shows are always very sympathetic towards the subject and his Grand Tour shows are basically tourist adverts for the countries featured. The Colombia one in particular is above wonderful but the most recent, Madagascar still hits the heights.

[Brad the Impala]

The fans will be pleased to know that a second series follows.

Filming has commenced on series two of Clarkson’s Farm from Expectation and Con Dao Productions, as the Grand Tour host spends another year in the world of agriculture. Clarkson’s fellow farmhands from series one will remain, including tractor driver Kaleb, advisor ‘cheerful’ Charlie and farm shopkeeper and girlfriend Lisa.

https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/amazo...rce=Newsletter

[Nirish guy]

There must be some weird PR / Money game going on there between Clarkson and Netflix perhaps as just last week Clarkson issued a statement saying that contrary to rumours Netflix hadn't commissioned a 2nd series (yet) and if fans wanted to see one they should write to Netflix to tell THEM that ! I'm guessing this was him trying to load his hand in negotiations with Netflix perhaps when going in to ask for his chunk of money for a second series.

You'd assume it was and would be a no brainer for both parties to get on with a second series based on how popular the first one was so I can only assume that was all just smoke and mirrors PR perhaps - especially if they are LITERALLY on site filming season two THAT decision wouldn't have been made just today or yesterday of course, which make Jeremys statement last week all the stranger perhaps. I guess we'll never know the truth as to what really was going on there.

[goji]

Yes. Take away the capital outlay on farm equipment (It's been a working farm for years) , the shop, the pond and the 'cast' and there's a profit of about £300'000 +.

I think it depends on how they are accounting and since it's scripted, we shall never know. I don't think Amazon got the auditors to check the figure quoted.

If done properly, I suspect the capex would be capitalized and only the depreciation shown on the P&L account.
I'm not sure what rate of depreciation is appropriate on farm equipment, but a life of 10~20 years is perfectly reasonable. Longer for some items.

[Nirish guy]

Clarkson must read this forum as I see he's just posted a video update this morning confirming there WILL be a second series - his ploy of getting people to write in to Netflix to demand one ( and hence ask for more money no doubt) must have paid off !