Please also see the following threads: 'What you can do to help save BBC Birmingham' and 'Why the BBC proposals are wrong for the Midlands'.



What is happening at the BBC in the Midlands?

The BBC management have published a review called 'Delivering Quality First' in which they set out a number of proposals for the future of the whole of the BBC. The review is in response to the government requirement for the licence fee to be frozen at £145.50 per annum and it has now been presented to the BBC Trust (October 2011) who are seeking the views of licence fee payers. It represents a major shift to the way in which the BBC is run...

There is no doubt that the BBC is under some pressure financially (who isn't?). They argue that they are now required to fund the World Service from the licence fee (previously paid for by government grant), although spending sprees on new buildings (including the £1 billion refurbishment of Head Office) have also placed the balance sheet under some strain.

The proposals include shifting more TV and radio production to Cardiff, Glasgow and Northern Ireland as well as moving 1,000 more jobs to Manchester (in addition to the 2,500 jobs moving there presently).

All sounds quite laudible so far, until you take a look at the short bullet point hidden away at the bottom of page 18 :


"Factual programming for BBC television and Radio 4 would be moved out of Birmingham and consolidated largely to Bristol and Cardiff, though television production investment with independent producers in the Midlands would increase. Substantial network television drama (e.g., Doctors, Land Girls) and radio drama (The Archers) would continue in Birmingham alongside the BBC’s local and regional services"


What this actually means is that The Factual Unit - the only department that makes TV programmes for the national networks at the BBC Mailbox office - will move to Bristol with the loss or transfer of up to 150 jobs.

Birmingham will remain the home of the Archers on Radio 4 (contributing about 0.9% of original programme hours to the station or 2.8% if the repeat episodes are included in the calculation). A small number of music programmes made for Radio 2 will transfer to Manchester, and all factual programmes made for Radio 4 will transfer to Bristol.

All of the following TV programmes will be transferred to Bristol:

• Sky at Night
• RHS garden shows
• Points of View
• Countryfile
• See Hear
• Hairy Bikers
• Coast
• Gardeners World


The Midlands will only be the home of one daytime TV drama (Doctors), one short daytime TV series (Land Girls) of 5 episodes per annum. Put all of this together and it does not amount to a "substantial network televsion drama" - not even close.

In addition, there will be job losses at local radio stations across the Midlands (and the UK) with the likely consolidation of off peak programme making.

None of this is good for the economy or the national profile of the Midlands. We have already seen many cutbacks at the BBC in the region over the last 11 years, including the closure of Pebble Mill (and with it, the last remaining BBC televsion studios in the whole of the Midlands. Yes, we have no TV studio).

The damage to the BBC is also potentially quite considerable. By moving further away from the licence fee payers in the Midlands it risks becoming increasingly irrelevant to the people who are paying for it. This all seems to be somewhat strange considering that the region contains many major urban centres including the second largest conurbation in the United Kingdom. For the concept of public service broadcasting, the proposals to make such drastic cutbacks to programme making in Birmingham are wrong at best, and highly dangerous at worst.

The full 'Delivering Quality First' document can be downloaded at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/review_report_research/dqf/dqf.pdf


Please also see the thread on this site: What you can do to save the BBC in Birmingham.