BBC to move top shows from London
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Crimewatch, Question Time and The Weakest Link are to move their production teams out of London under plans to make half of all BBC programmes away from the capital by 2016.
In a speech last night, director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett announced major new plans for BBC programming, which she described as “a radical shift in the whole set up of broadcasting.”
The move, in which the BBC will boost its spending from £300m to about £500m in today’s terms, is designed to better reflect the diversity of BBC viewers and help shed the perception that the corporation is interested primarily in the metropolis. Approval ratings for the corporation are significantly lower the further people live from London. Bennett said the shift would change “the voices we hear, the local faces and lives we see reflected on our screens”.
“Our intention is nothing less than changing the very DNA of the BBC to bring the production of programmes closer to the audience we serve. That means permanently increasing the production and commissioning of programmes outside London”.
Subject to final funding approval, the BBC ‘out of London’ plan aims to build seven “centres of excellence” for production at existing BBC sites in Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, London, Bristol, Salford and Birmingham.
“These production and commissioning centres will help boost local employment and create creative clusters of both in-house and independent programme makers, whilst reflecting people’s lives onscreen wherever they live,” the Beeb said in a statement.
The sports and children’s departments as well as Five Live are already due to move to a new base in Salford, near Manchester. Meanwhile Question Time, the arts programmes Imagine and Newsnight Review will move to the BBC’s new centre in Glasgow, while Crimewatch and Casualty are to be relocated to Cardiff.
The move is not popular with presenters and producers. Question Time host David Dimbleby is understood to have expressed “dismay” about the proposal to move the flagship political show to Scotland.
A source at the programme described the move as “bonkers”. “The seat of Government in the UK is not in Glasgow - it is Westminster. There is no forum where you can meet and see politicians from around the UK in Glasgow. The show already reflects-out-of London diversity as it goes all around Britain,” he said.
