The London Studios - new main studio

I was reading the brilliant http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/ site and came across this on one of the pages: 'ITV for example have found that 3 main studios are not sufficient and are building a new one at their South Bank HQ.'

Anyone here with their finger on the pulse know any more? By 'main' I'm guessing it isn't simply some temporary and/or small set-up somewhere in the tower or something; it would be on a similar scale to studios 1, 2 and 3 on the ground floor.

This seems a bit strange, its been closing down studios for years, unless its for its growing business to compete with the likes of Maidstone and elstree or where the x factor is filmed?

It might make commercial sense, if TVC has lost 5 studios, then there will be more demand, I assume TLS are at capacity so considering building a new one?

So they're going to demolish the This Morning studio, replace it with something bigger and put This Morning somewhere else (TLS7 maybe?)...

I've heard that they are also considering building new offices nearby and renting out the tower as flats

Closing down studios around the country, yes... But not in London

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/itv-mulls-south-bank-headquarters-flat-conversion-plan-9534803.html?origin=internalSearch

But the Tower is conjoined to the Main Studio complex?

Sort of. In the beginning the tower block was physically separate from the main podium block (the larger part of the site containing all the production facilities and restaurant etc). The joints between the two are still there and can be seen as wooden buffer plates as you walk along the 1st and 2nd floor corridors. As time went on they became entwined a bit with some technical infrastructure crossing the boundaries but it would be very simple to separate the two again. In the early days 'artistes reception' was at the far end of the building nearest the river, it was closed in the mid 70's due to concerns about IRA bombing campaigns etc I imagine there are lots of possibilities. The Evening Standard article correctly points out that ITV plc do not own the Princes Wharf site - they rent it.

Not in London it hasn't... That's where people still want to make programmes.

With TVC and Teddington, plus a few other places like Capital, closing or reducing capacity, and the potential loss of Riverside (if the Hammersmith redevelopment happens) there is a pretty major studio shortage. I know some studios have waiting lists and queues two or three shows deep for cancellations.

If there isn't enough space in London, may I suggest ITV etc work with the Council to invest in Studios in Birmingham. It should be cheaper to build, it should be cheaper to run, it's closer to London than Manchester/Leeds and unlike any of the other cities without major TV studios has real Broadcasting heritage.

Just saying...I know it's very unlikely to happen.

The point is like it or not the demand is in London for studio space, and not so much the rest of the country.