Jeremy Clarkson is expected to unveil a new motoring show to rival Top Gear in the next few weeks, with three broadcasters vying to sign up the presenter.

ITV and the US on-demand services Netflix and Amazon are understood to be the frontrunners to sign Clarkson, who was axed from the BBC2 show earlier this year after punching one of its producers.



Clarkson is set to be joined by both of his former Top Gear co-presenters, Richard Hammond and James May, with “three huge companies” competing to sign the stars. “They have had offers and they are close to making a decision about what they want to do,” an industry source said.

The presenters, along with the show’s former executive producer, Clarkson’s long-time friend and collaborator Andy Wilman, met ITV’s director of television, Peter Fincham, last month.

ITV has suffered a ratings slump this year and needs more male-skewed shows after losing the rights to Uefa Champions League football coverage to BT. It is said to be keen to make the programme in-house or through a production company that is part-owned by its programme-making arm, ITV Studios.

The broadcaster will face competition from Netflix, the home of Kevin Spacey’s House of Cards, and Amazon, which has moved into original programming and won acclaim for its transgender drama, Transparent.

All three companies would look to exploit the presenters’ global appeal. Top Gear has a fan base of 350 million viewers worldwide, and although the new show would not be able to use the show’s name, which is owned by the BBC, the three presenters are synonymous with the BBC2 programme, against with which they would go head to head.

ITV was touted as the most likely UK broadcaster to pick up the trio after Channel 4 and Sky ruled themselves out.

Netflix, which has more than 60 million subscribers worldwide, more than 2 million of them in the UK, is understood to have held internal discussions about the risks of taking on Clarkson.

One issue thought to have been raised is the possibility of a subscriber backlash if it signed him after his suspension and axing by the BBC. “He is a rare thing, a mainstream broadcaster with an edge and that makes him more difficult to handle,” said one senior broadcasting executive.

Netflix signed the team behind the BBC’s award-winning natural history documentaries The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet earlier this year for a flagship new documentary series, Our Planet.

The long-running Top Gear saga took a new twist on Friday when Clarkson claimed a BBC executive had approached him about returning to the show days before Chris Evans was unveiled as its new presenter.

Clarkson told the Sun: “I had a meeting with a BBC executive last week and they asked if I’d come back to Top Gear. But it was never an option … too much has gone on. The spotlight would have been on me and the show would end up being neutered. It would be difficult to do anything without interference. It would have been impossible to make the show I’d want to make.”

The BBC refused to comment on whether talks had taken place. “We haven’t offered [Clarkson] another Top Gear contract,” it said. “The BBC had placed on record its thanks to Jeremy for his broadcasting on the programme and wish him well for the future.”

An Amazon spokesperson said: “As a company we do not comment on speculation or rumour.” An ITV spokesman said: “We haven’t commented and aren’t planning to comment on the continual Top Gear speculation.” Netflix also declined to comment.