In the air: London hit by lack of TV studio space

 
New rules: the BBC has announced gagging clauses will be removed from contracts
12 June 2013

London is suffering from a shortage of TV studio space following the closure of BBC Television Centre which has pushed up rental costs, according to industry figures.

The problem could get worse as ITV is looking at whether to sell its HQ on the South Bank, home of London Studios, where Have I Got News For You and Jonathan Ross are filmed. Chairman Archie Norman tells Television Magazine “we may want to move” after buying the freehold for £56 million. ITV has a team looking at if it’s worth building a new HQ and studio complex elsewhere. “It makes sense to keep our options open,” adds Norman, who believes keeping the HQ above the TV studios “shop” makes sense. Imagine how much the South Bank site could sell for.

* No love lost between former BBC director-general Mark Thompson and BBC Trustee Anthony Fry, who was answering tricky questions from MPs in Salford on Monday about the BBC’s Digital Media Initative. Top Labour MP Margaret Hodge suggested her Public Accounts Committee might have to drag Thompson to give evidence about the £100 million disaster. Fry: “I would very much welcome you summoning him.”

* The failure of DMI is not surprising. MPs heard that the BBC management organogram consisted of Thompson and technology boss Erik Huggers (now said to be on £3 million a year at Microsoft, according to an MP), followed by: six senior managers, nine controllers, 18 heads of department and nine project-department supremos!

* Fireworks may be on the agenda at the British Journalism Review/University of Westminster conference tomorrow when shadow deputy prime minister Harriet Harman gives the annual Charles Wheeler Lecture. She will doubtless reinforce Labour’s call for tough press legislation, which will please many of the pro-Leveson Report academics but not journalists who are mostly appalled at the Hacked Off-backed regulatory framework.

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