Farewell Hammersmith and Fulham ?

One of the buzz phrases coming out of the BBC's "Delivering Quality First" Review has been a "five-hub" strategy. This would mean, over time, concentrating production in Glasgow, Salford, Belfast, Cardiff/Bristol and London - hence recent twitches about the future home of network programmes made in Birmingham; uncontroversial, I thought, apart from concerns about The Archers.

But there's a bigger story. What I hadn't twigged previously was that the bean-counters believe the London base (of a much smaller BBC) should be just the re-furbished Broadcasting House (plus a few satellite buildings in W1).  So the ambition is apparently to get out of London W12 altogether - emptying not just Television Centre, but the three major buildings on the White City site - White City 1, the Broadcast Centre and the Media Centre.  There's still plenty of space at Pacific Quay, Glasgow, and room for expansion in Salford. And as each area takes a 16-20% cut, more space becomes available.

















White City 1 opened in 1990, and has been given a makeover in the past two years - it's home to Panorama, other current affairs programmes, the Academy (code for training) and a range of suits. The Media Centre and the Broadcast Centre were opened in 2004, and house BBC Worldwide, Future Media and Technology, Red Bee productions and more suits and admin.

The former "Energy Centre" now provides production offices and studio for "The One Show" - who fought hard to come in from Birmingham in their formative year. Now they're trying to get grappling hooks into Broadcasting House, to avoid a move much further north.   A few more will be round the grappling hook shop when this proposal is aired......