The BBC is having some trouble with hearts and minds these days. Despite some years of preparing the (intellectual) ground, the case for the move out of Television Centre is being picked at by combative former technical staff and talent alike. It started with the BBC's own "farewell" programmes, and stars lamenting the old days, when they could get a new series commissioned in a toilet break; and now continues over the issue of only retaining 3 of the 8 major tv studios in the redevelopment of the site.
Let's review some of the arguments. The old days of commissioners sitting alongside actual programme-making every day are long gone. More and more BBC shows are made by indies, in studios of their choosing. More and more BBC shows are made in the Drama Village in Cardiff. I'll bet my pants Lord Hall likes classic costume drama - so there'll be more and more location work. There's a major BBC contract committing to use of the tv studios at MediaCityUK, Salford Quays. One day, maybe, Pacific Quay studios in Glasgow will work at capacity - the BBC will want to look busy in the run-up to the independence vote. The One Show, which disdained Television Centre for a converted office in White City, is moving to Broadcasting House. In Lord Hall's in-tray is a proposal to send a further 1,000 staff to Salford; and James Purnell has been given the task of finding something to do with the half-empty BBC offices and production space at the Mailbox in Birmingham. The new commissioners are in the "Sanderson Suite" on the 6th floor of Broadcasting House. Even Alan Yentob is parking his Brompton in the building.
Is the BBC retaining the right number of studios ? Who knows, but somebody has done calculations which will have been based on forecast demand, signed off by people at the top of BBC Vision - not only that the BBC can cope in the long-term, but during the three years of redevelopment. There will be no black screens. Maybe studios 4 to 8 were getting work up to the end - but quite a lot of that was for shows for other networks - Deal or No Deal, Piers Morgan's Life Stories, Eight out of Ten Cats, The Jonathan Ross Show and more.
Some of the campaigners claim that the licence-fee paying public "owns" Studios 4 to 8, having funded them over the years. By the same odd logic, tax-payers own a lot of old hospitals, crumbling schools and forgotten roads. Selling the site was the only option, and brokering a development deal wasn't a bad idea. The income from the sale is piffling; the BBC gets £200m. The real win for Auntie is removing the annual costs of running a 14-acre site, with monster power, maintenance and security issues. Downsizing is a much more important part of making budget cuts than most past and current staff want to recognise - and getting the balance right between output, technical facilities and staff will help preserve the jobs of programme-makers, which is what we all want.
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We all realise the BBC are out of TVC because the people running it have made some expensive mistakes (Salford and NBH) but a lot of people are desperate for the studios to remain as a going concern for the wider TV community. Once they're gone they're gone...
ReplyDeleteThe foregoing should read "A lot of people are desperate for the studios to remain as a going concern for the wider UK community". The BBC is the glue that holds the UK together as a community.
ReplyDeleteYes, the days when a series could be commissioned during a loo break are long gone. That’s because there is no one left in BBC Management who has any experience or understanding of programme-making, television or broadcasting. Today they are just overstaffed career bureaucrats whose only obvious talent is for reinvesting Licence Payer’s money into their own pockets. They are the one part of the Corporation immune from 'Downsizing'. Which is why every programme idea now has to pass through layer upon layer of pointless committees. It would also explain why the BBC’s new premises at Salford Quays and New Broadcasting House are so ill-designed and malfunctioning. True, the BBC was payed £200 million for Television Centre, but the cost of moving out was well over £1.85 billion! This figure includes £1 billion cost of moving the news operation from a virtually brand-new newsroom at TV Centre, to a much larger, and uglier, newsroom at New Broadcasting House, and the £800 million invested in Salford Quays. It does not include the cost of staff relocation, nor the continuing travel and accommodation costs of staff and cast who are still commuting from London, nor the ongoing cost of hiring studios that the BBC doesn’t own. Nor does it include the cost of hiring and modifying temporary studios to accommodate all the mainstream entertainment programmes that were once the primary workload of Television Centre. Then there is CCA, the principle hub of the nation’s communications network, which is still operating from the ‘closed’ Television Centre (did the Management even know it was there?). The cost of moving it to other locations has been estimated at a further £50 million. At a very conservative estimate, the the sale of TV Centre has wasted about £2 billion. Only BBC Management could ‘sell the family silver’ and make such a catastrophic loss on the deal. There was no consultation, not even the pretence of a consultation, with the License Fee Payers, who are the true owners of TV Centre, and are now expected to pick up the bill for mismanagement.
ReplyDeleteDear Roger,
DeleteThe wider BBC property strategy is fascinating; the move from freehold to leasehold was radical, but driven by a wish to keep in with politicians. The politicans failed to deliver a licence fee that keeps pace with inflation - thus downsizing all round has been the name of the game for nearly ten years. The accounts are public, and scrutinised by the NAO and the Public Accounts Committee, and I'm sure you're making your case to them. Sadly, I think if you really believe the LF payers are to "true owners" of TV Centre, you'll have to set up some sort of whip round to keep all the studios going.
Cheers
Bill
The campaign to http://savetvc.co.uk is not about the BBC, it is about the shortage of studio capacity in London. Just because the BBC has elected to move North doesn't mean that other companies producing shows for all channels don't need the capacity in the capital city.
ReplyDeleteThe studios are there, and the industry needs capacity. What's simpler than that?
Just keep your eye on Sky. Just completed 8 studios, well kind of studios, and are planning to build more! They think there is a need for studios. But they will not be a patch on TC.
ReplyDelete