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BBC Television Centre

"Sale looks unlikely" (March 2008)

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RT
rts Founding member
http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2007/11/22/BBCTVCentre460.jpg

MediaGuardian
The BBC's iconic west London home, Television Centre, may not be sold off after all, after the corporation received lower-than-expected bids for its BBC Resources commercial subsidiary.


I'm sure many of us will be cheered up by this, but with news moving to Broadcasting House and other devisions moving oop-norf, will it just become a lonely shell of it's vibrant past...
NG
noggin Founding member
As the mediaguardian article suggests, the site is more likely now to be leased than sold. I guess that means it will need to be re-developed, if not just refurbished, so that it can be occupied by others. The suggestion is that the future commercial value of the site (when that gigantic shopping centre, along with the new main line and underground rail stations, opposite opens?) will be worth waiting for rather than selling the studio operation (and the building) at a knock down price for a quick cash hit.

Suspect the pensions and asbestos liability is just too much for other companies to want to pay a high price for the operation - even if some of the studios are among the best in the UK (TC1 and TC8 are HD, and most of the others are in pretty OK states technically - though 10,11,12 and 13 are nothing special, having been built/rebuilt on the cheap)

The article does suggest that the studio resources operation will be kept in house - so some studios are likely to be operated by the BBC in the future, but there is a lot more to TVC than studios - and all the main BBC departments occupying office space there will have moved to Salford, W1 or the White City campus leaving it pretty empty.
TR
TROGGLES
I wonder if this is anything to do with the government getting the jitters over PFI contracts and the BBC has 3 massive ones inc Broadcasting House (which will see the licence fee payers saddled with huge debts for 40 years)

Perhaps owning your own home outright without having a mortage is a good idea after all Rolling Eyes
NG
noggin Founding member
TROGGLES posted:
I wonder if this is anything to do with the government getting the jitters over PFI contracts and the BBC has 3 massive ones inc Broadcasting House (which will see the licence fee payers saddled with huge debts for 40 years)

Perhaps owning your own home outright without having a mortage is a good idea after all Rolling Eyes


I think it is more like owning a buy to let property now...
IS
Inspector Sands
noggin posted:

Suspect the pensions and asbestos liability is just too much for other companies to want to pay a high price for the operation - TC1 and TC8 are HD, and most of the others are in pretty OK states technically - though 10,11,12 and 13 are nothing special, having been built/rebuilt on the cheap)


I thought that most of the asbestos had been removed over the years, there's certainly been a big programme to take it out safely as and when rooms/studios were refurbished (which they are constantly!)

As for the lease/sale, I'd have thought that the best scenario would be to keep the main studio block, and redevelop the outlying buildings - canteen, design block, east tower, car park, pabx etc. That would provide a bit of land mostly to the south of the site near to the Westfield development

Any studio operation would need to keep small cheap studios like TC10 - 13. They are just in demand these days from the smaller production companies and digital channels - look how much use studios like Princess, and the smaller studios at Teddington get.
NG
noggin Founding member
Inspector Sands posted:
noggin posted:

Suspect the pensions and asbestos liability is just too much for other companies to want to pay a high price for the operation - TC1 and TC8 are HD, and most of the others are in pretty OK states technically - though 10,11,12 and 13 are nothing special, having been built/rebuilt on the cheap)


I thought that most of the asbestos had been removed over the years, there's certainly been a big programme to take it out safely as and when rooms/studios were refurbished (which they are constantly!)



Nowhere near all of it has been removed - and though they thought they'd got rid of all the stuff that could exposed staff working in the areas, recently they discovered that areas previously though air-tight sealed... Weren't. This is why they had to seal up all the wallboxes in TC2, 3 and 5, and move BBC Sport's set into another studio for a while, whilst the asbestos in the "un sealed" areas of TC5 was removed.

The "sealed" areas contain huge amounts by all accounts - which makes any re-wiring, re-building etc. of the buildings much trickier, and MUCH more expensive than a non-asbestos riddled building.

It IS true that loads of the asbestos in the studios has been removed - but by no means all of it in the fabric.

The other limitation is that most of the cable trunking is full - so running new cables around is much trickier - and this includes fibres needed for modern connectivity.

Quote:

As for the lease/sale, I'd have thought that the best scenario would be to keep the main studio block, and redevelop the outlying buildings - canteen, design block, east tower, car park, pabx etc. That would provide a bit of land mostly to the south of the site near to the Westfield development


Yep - selling off or redeveloping part of the site - particularly the East Tower - which although useful as a very tall receive point - allowing the news helicopter to work up to 100miles away without a mid point - is in a poor state and crumbling. A lot of the Design (now Drama) building is also pretty poor quality office accommodation.

I agree that keepin the doughnut but redeveloping the rest is a good idea.

Quote:

Any studio operation would need to keep small cheap studios like TC10 - 13. They are just in demand these days from the smaller production companies and digital channels - look how much use studios like Princess, and the smaller studios at Teddington get.


Yep - the spaces are useful (I should know...) but, unlike Teddington, they were rebuilt very cheaply with dreadful cameras and a very low cost infrastructure.

That said - rebuilding them wouldn't cost the earth - and the floors are flattish, the grids a reasonable height and the aircon works!
IS
Inspector Sands
noggin posted:

Yep - the spaces are useful (I should know...) but, unlike Teddington, they were rebuilt very cheaply with dreadful cameras and a very low cost infrastructure.

That said - rebuilding them wouldn't cost the earth - and the floors are flattish, the grids a reasonable height and the aircon works!


Yeah, the basic studio is the main thing though, especially with the original ones (N1 and N2) which are decent proper old studios. And with such places any long term takers would fit it with kit that fits their spec (a shopping or quiz channel being a good example).

Mind you they'd have a couple of decent and fairly modern news studios available in a few years time
LO
looknorth
Inspector Sands posted:
noggin posted:

Yep - the spaces are useful (I should know...) but, unlike Teddington, they were rebuilt very cheaply with dreadful cameras and a very low cost infrastructure.

That said - rebuilding them wouldn't cost the earth - and the floors are flattish, the grids a reasonable height and the aircon works!


Yeah, the basic studio is the main thing though, especially with the original ones (N1 and N2) which are decent proper old studios. And with such places any long term takers would fit it with kit that fits their spec (a shopping or quiz channel being a good example).

Mind you they'd have a couple of decent and fairly modern news studios available in a few years time


N1/N2 are old news studios (TC10/TC11)which are currently sitting doing nothing at all Confused
NG
noggin Founding member
Inspector Sands posted:
noggin posted:

Yep - the spaces are useful (I should know...) but, unlike Teddington, they were rebuilt very cheaply with dreadful cameras and a very low cost infrastructure.

That said - rebuilding them wouldn't cost the earth - and the floors are flattish, the grids a reasonable height and the aircon works!


Yeah, the basic studio is the main thing though, especially with the original ones (N1 and N2) which are decent proper old studios. And with such places any long term takers would fit it with kit that fits their spec (a shopping or quiz channel being a good example).


Yep - N1 and N2 are reasonable spaces. The lighting kit in N2/TC11 is pretty tired - the pantos aren't that reliable (though I think N1/TC10 may have been improved). Also the scene lifts are historically a nightmare. (Celebdaq used to come from TC11/N2 and kept its set on the 6th floor during the week when the Liquid News set was in, as when it was stored in the ring road it very nearly got stuck in the lifts on the way up to set on the Friday of TX)

You're right that the studio floor is the most important bit - though because they got rid of the shared apps bay that N1 and N2 used to share there is only a single gallery space (with a small sound area within) and so you end up with a very noisy gallery as you shout over all of the apps gear!

Quote:

Mind you they'd have a couple of decent and fairly modern news studios available in a few years time


The only decent news studio is the one that is rented from BBC Resources (currently home to Breakfast, Working Lunch, Hardtalk, Newsround, the Six, the 8pm, the Ten and Newsnight , and Newswatch)

The current News 24 and World "studios" are just galleries working into office space - and the currently-out-of-action BBC One (soon to be News 24/One/Ten) studio is a very compromised space with no decent lighting grid, a very low ceiling with a whopping great steel beam running right through the middle (making lighting even more tricky)

These three spaces are on the first and second floor with no direct scenic access and very inflexible lighting. You could use them for other fixed set newsroom/office sets (something like Watchdog would be doable) but you wouldn't be doing anything short-run or fast-turnaround.
NG
noggin Founding member
looknorth posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
noggin posted:

Yep - the spaces are useful (I should know...) but, unlike Teddington, they were rebuilt very cheaply with dreadful cameras and a very low cost infrastructure.

That said - rebuilding them wouldn't cost the earth - and the floors are flattish, the grids a reasonable height and the aircon works!


Yeah, the basic studio is the main thing though, especially with the original ones (N1 and N2) which are decent proper old studios. And with such places any long term takers would fit it with kit that fits their spec (a shopping or quiz channel being a good example).

Mind you they'd have a couple of decent and fairly modern news studios available in a few years time


N1/N2 are old news studios (TC10/TC11)which are currently sitting doing nothing at all Confused


They are often used as rehearsal spaces for the BBC One Saturday night talent shows like Joseph and Maria, and they're also used as interview studios. (I think the Eurovision : Your Decision interviews were done there)

BBC Sport use TC11 as a second studio when they need to do studio presentation on a Saturday when Score Interactive/Final Score is on, or they have a need to do two studios shows for another reason. Tennis and Athletics coverage has come from there relatively recently.
:-(
A former member
wasn;t Eurovision : Your Decision done in Maidstone just like last year?
PT
Put The Telly On
623058 posted:
wasn;t Eurovision : Your Decision done in Maidstone just like last year?


No, TC1

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