For almost fifty years UK TV channels BBC and ITV have shared the rights to air the annual Royal Variety show. The show is hosted year on, year off by each channel.

However rumours suggest that the BBC is now trying to steal the show from cash strapped ITV and wants the rights to air it on an exclusive basis.

“The feeling is we can make a serious play to take the Royal Variety Show off ITV’s hands permanently,” one source told The Daily Star Sunday.

ITV announced last week that it will cut another £20m from its programming budget, the announcement followed a spree of job cuts and redundancies in the previous year.

The source added: “They are clearly struggling financially, so it makes sense.”

If the BBC win this battle it may cause problems for ITV’s entertainment show Britain’s Got Talent. The prize for winning BGT is a cash prize and the chance to appear on the Royal Variety Show. Would BBC continue to promote an ITV show if they had exclusive rights to the annual talent extravaganza? Somehow I doubt they would.