CEO David Abraham says new version of BBC show has exceeded financial goals and rejects claims the presenters are ‘old hat’

The chief executive of Channel 4 has defended the broadcaster’s £75m purchase of The Great British Bake Off, saying it did not steal the show from the BBC.

David Abraham told the digital, culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday that the independent company behind the show, Love Productions, had been unhappy and that Channel 4 had only “intervened at the point the decision was being made to leave the BBC”.

“This was not a snatch from the BBC,” he said.

Abraham said the deal had been a financial success despite a dip in viewing figures since the show moved channels. “Audience feedback and reaction in the media is that many people prefer the show in its new guise than the version on the BBC. That is obviously subjective, but I think it has been a successful transfer.”

The Conservative MP Rebecca Pow argued that the new lineup, comprising the original judge Paul Hollywood and newcomers Prue Leith, Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, were “all old-hat presenters seen everywhere else”.

“What’s fresh about it apart from the ingredients?” she said.

Abraham, who is standing down at the end of the week after seven years as chief executive, said: “It is a much-loved show, but like all shows needs to be kept fresh. We haven’t meddled with the format but there has been some imagination applied to the casting.

“It is a commercial hit that draws in audiences that can help pay for other parts of our business that are not profitable. Bake Off helps to pay for Channel 4 News, in effect. We make no apology for acquiring a hit that helps us do that.”

When challenged that viewing is well down on the heights of the last series on the BBC, the final of which drew 14 million viewers, he said Channel 4’s version had beaten viewing figures for previous series and was the biggest hit the broadcaster had had since Big Brother’s peak more than a decade ago.

Abraham said Bake Off, which reaches the semi-final on Tuesday night, has attracted 10 million viewers per episode on Channel 4 when live, catchup and repeat viewing is totalled.

The Channel 4 chairman, Charles Gurassa, said: “If we had been unsuccessful we would have seen millions of pounds of advertising – it is the biggest show on TV – potentially going to a competitor. We were competing with ITV, Sky and Netflix. There wasn’t a nil-cost option for us.”

Abraham said the show had “met and exceeded” financial targets, recouping more than the £25m a year needed to make it a profitable deal.

He also defended the controversial documentary My Week As a Muslim, which aired on Monday night, featuring a white woman in brownface and a prosthetic nose to make her look Pakistani.

The documentary, which was made without consulting groups such as the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), happened to be filmed in the week of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.

A spokeswoman for the MCB said there was “value” in consulting beyond those directly involved in programme-making. “This may help the production understand the potential national impact of sensitive issues, the strength of feeling of which appears to have been underestimated,” she said.

Abraham said: “I thought personally it was a thoughtful programmer, a responsible programme, all the participants entered into the process voluntarily. Clearly you can’t enter into a project like this and negotiate with multiple parties.”

Abraham and Gurassa offered few details on whether Channel 4 was relocating from the capital. They said only that they were confident of reaching a deal with the government to move some functions out of London, such as a much bigger proportion of its 120-member commissioning team.

Abraham admitted that only “three or four” of the team lived outside the capital.

The broadcaster also indicated it was likely to spend a higher proportion of its £629m annual programming budget on shows made by production companies based outside London.