The BBC Director General, Tony Hall, believes more should be done to produce programmes outside of London.
In the BBC’s Annual Plan he stated that the corporation needed to make the most “creative, high-quality and distinctive output.”
“Essential to this will be going further and faster in our work outside London. Today, 50% of our organisation is based outside London. It is a great starting point – better than other major media businesses in the UK – but we believe we can do more. There are still too many creative talents who can feel locked out of an industry that remains stubbornly tilted towards London and the South East.”
He added that commissioning more material outside of the M25 would make the BBC “creatively richer” and he said that plans this year included “reflecting, representing and serving the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions.”
“Growing the next generation of British production talent and supporting smaller, specialist independent producers is vitally important to the BBC and its audiences,” he continued.
“It remains one of our core commitments as the content market continues to consolidate and change.”
Turning specifically to BBC Local Radio, he explained that work was underway to transform stations to better reflect the communities they serve and engage with younger, more diverse audiences.
“Local Radio will be the front door for new talent into the BBC and the place where local conversations are heard,” he explained.
Part of this move is a submission to Ofcom to change the make-up of breakfast shows. Currently BBC local radio must be 60% speech between 6am and 7pm and 100% between 7am and 8.30am on weekdays.
Hall proposes changing the remit to “speech – with news at its core” – and removing the 100% speech quota at breakfast time.
