Big changes to BBC Production

Some rather seismic changes are on the horizon for BBC production and commissioning, as outlined by Tony Hall in a recent speech. He wants all commissioning quotas to be abolished, including the 25% reserved for indies. He also wishes BBC Production to be able to produce programmes for other broadcasters and for it to be split off from the rest of the corporation, essentially turning it into a commercial operation like BBC Worldwide.

This is in response to recent consolidation among indies that means many of them no longer qualify to produce within the quota that has been earmarked for indies.

http://tbivision.com/news/2014/07/bbc-quotas-to-be-scrapped-after-mega-mergers/302202/

Full speech here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/speeches/2014/dg-city-university

I agree that the indie quotas should be abolished for the BBC. There are surely enough channels for Indies to be commissioned without the BBC taking on 25%. The same goes for ITV. It might even have the added bonus of improving Channel 4!

As for Sky, maybe they could have channels with no Indie quota and others with 100%? Will Viacom's purchase of Channel 5 make their very small Production arm a major player? If so, would they then request a removal of Indie production too?

I really don't know what to think about this - in a way I think there can only be losers as a result. It'll harm the BBC, it'll harm independents and ultimately harm the viewers. Just don't see it being a win-win situation all round.

I agree the ITV Quota should also be scrapped, the bbc one should have been taken away years ago.

half the show by the inde, are total rubbish, including the awful lotto shows etc...

Would they be any different if they were produced in house? No probably not.

I wonder if this is a decision by the BBC Management or DCMS?

It certainly won't harm the BBC's in house team, it'll massively improve it. You can spend months developing an idea and if a commissioner doesn't like it then that's it, it's dead. At an indie you can rework it for other channels.

When I was at entertainment development at the Beeb there was a comedy entertainment team that was unable to pitch anything to commissioners for about five months because there were no slots available for new comedy ent shows. That's not good value for license fee payers. I can't tell you the amount of amazing show ideas that are locked away on the shared drives.

At the moment in house often struggles to attract the best development talent because there often isn't the money available for the rate they want and they don't want the restriction of only being able to pitch to four BBC channels and UKTV. A new income from selling to other channels will mean their able to attract more top development execs which is something they've often struggled to do, especially in entertainment.

As for indies, I work for one and we're very happy to see the in house barrier removed (even though it's still years away). It's more potential slots for us.

Really don't see how the viewer will lose from this. I can only see there being much better ideas being pitched and commercial broadcasters feeling the benefit as well.

More important than the removal of the 25 percent for indies is the scrapping of the 50 percent quota guaranteed for in-house productions. In the end, this will probably mean more programmes from indies. Allowing BBC Production to produce for others is probably partly a remedy for this potential loss in commissions, but it would also open up a lot of opportunities as gottago explains above

In a way, this could be the final step in the transformation in the TV production system from the old completely in-house model to a more open market that started with the launch of Channel 4 and continued with the imposition of indie quotas on BBC and ITV in the early 90s.

The trouble is though once the BBC starts producing for other channels the next step will be for BBC Productions to become independent of the BBC, and then we'll be left with a BBC that ultimately cannot produce it's own content. I just don't see it ending well - but that's what happens when our public institutions are left in the care of the Tories.

Yet ITV does this? it has sperate production arms

And that's the very reason this is a dangerous move. ITV are quite happy to compete with the BBC as a broadcaster where the licence fee means their biggest competitor cannot take advertising. As a producer though they will not want to be competing against a licence fee funded operation, and as such ultimately I can only see it being spun off into a company independent of the BBC - and that really would be the beginning of the end IMO for the BBC as we know it.