[Closed] BBC move to Manchester

Aren't they moving up north to avoid being flooded in the future? 😯

Accept it, London is the capital city, it's where most stuff happens. News is primarily repotring on that stuff, so why not be where the stuff is.

I'm an avid listener of 5Live. It's clear that there's been a lot of shuffling around in pereparation for this. Simon Mayo was never going to move to Salford, so he switched to Radio 2. Peter Allen will retire rather than move.

But I hear there's now going to be a Radio4 Extra. I didn't know that many black people listened to Radio 4.

"London is still the Greatest City on Earth though."

Depends on what criteria this is based.
Using my personal criteria, London is the ar$e-hole of Britain.

With the BBC moves there'll be a few more sops around up here, with their weird accents and general southern-softy-ness...

Warrington is the most soulless place on earth. FACT! A cultural vacuum. I don't see why its relevant though. The law clearly states that if you work in the media in the north west of England, you have to live in Chorlton.

Anyroadup... I can't see the problem. If they don't want to move, then don't. Simple. Who's the one who's going to suffer here. Me. That's bloody who!

As has already pointed out, the people who do will be quids in. The poncey clothes shops, raki massage centres, and overpriced deli counters and coffee houses on Beech Road will be rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of all that housing equity, and taxpayer funded expense accounts being chucked about with wanton abandon

I suspect my cost of living is about to increase fairly drastically. 🙄

Stay in London you ****s!!!

They'll attract investment 🙂

Binners, have you never been to Warrington's "Cultural Quarter"? No neither have I, my Mum did once, it was shut.

Brycey - Have you read Pies and Prejudice? This is how Stuart Maconie put it:

"I left Bank Quay station and followed the signs for the Cultural Quarter, 5 minutes later i passed another sign saying id travelled through the cultural quarter"

Ha ha, that's about the size of it.

The clue is in the overhead costs. Ask anyone at STW about the cost of operating in the North West.

There's a story that the chairman of Airtours, one of the UK's most successful tour operators at one time, went to London to make a presentation about his company at some big ABTA conference. When he got to the slide of the company's offices in a converted cotton mill in Helmshore, deepest Lancashire, the audience guffawed patronisingly. "You may laugh," said the chairman, "but the difference is that the land on which my office stands costs one tenth of the land on which your offices stand!" The story goes that the meeting went horribly quiet as everybody considered the implications.

Ernie, we still live in black and white up here. If some ponce turns up with a wireless box that you can talk to other ponces with we’ll either eat them or burn them at the stake... then eat them.

At least there is a pub nearby should anyone wish to nip out at lunch for a spritzer.

http://menmedia.co.uk/salfordadvertiser/news/s/524961_blood_bath_pub_duo_are_guilty_

A mate of my dad has already contacted the Beeb to see if one of their relocated staff wants to buy his million pound farm house. From the sounds of it he may struggle to find a buyer.

At least there is a pub nearby should anyone wish to nip out at lunch for a spritzer.

😕 Eh ?

What was the point of that link Harry ?

Southerners can take care of themselves in Northern pubs, no bother.

it's funny that people refer to London as being a good or bad, nice or grim, dull or exciting place.

That's like referring to England as good or bad, grouping Middlesborough in the same sentence as Rock.

London is pretty big. I have no interest in living/visiting/working in about 80-90% of London, a large proportion of it, like anywhere else (except Geneva maybe!) is a dump. I stick to the areas that are appealing to me.

Same applies to England as a whole. Clearly, much of the north (and it's cities) is pretty crap. But you've got no reason to spend any time in them, just stick to the areas/places you find appealing.

I find someone from London, living in a 2 bedroom flat in Hackney (not even the now socially acceptable end) with barely any disposable income, banging on about how AMAZING a city London is quite amusing.

In the same respect, I find it quite funny when someone living in a 3 bedroom semi in Middlesborough with their 5 kids says that the North is amazing and they would never live in London, despite only having visited twice (once on a school trip and taking the wife xmas shopping for the day 7 years ago).

I used to love living in London, I really did. But in all honesty, for all the choice and variety I had on my doorstep (i.e. within 1 hour on the tube), I barely even scratched the surface. You don't eat out in a different restaurant every night, or drink in a different pub every friday/saturday. Like everywhere else, you find your favourite area/places and you frequent them.

I live in the North now and love it too. With a decent outlook on life and not being unbalanced by a huge chip on your shoulder caused by years of geographical predjudice (a reasonable disposable income helps too), you can enjoy most of the UK to more or less the same extent.

My prioties have changed over the years, of key importance to me now is having the great outdoors as close as possible, since that's where i prefer to spend my free time. I didn't have the same access to that in London, and even when I did I was lazy.

btw, i'm Scottish, so came to england with an open mind.

I couldn't give a crap where they put the BBC, it's rubbish anyway.

Yeah, but London is rubbish too.

I couldn't give a crap where they put the BBC, it's rubbish anyway.

Yup, they don't even have any adverts.

If I do decide to watch one of the BBC's world infamous poor quality programmes, I then have to quickly switch over to ITV to find out what I should buy.

At least there is a pub nearby should anyone wish to nip out at lunch for a spritzer.

Eh ?

What was the point of that link Harry ?

A joke that clearly missed the mark.
I'm sure media city will bring a load of jobs and money to what was once quite a run down area. However, it isn't too surprising that many people don't want to up root their families and move a couple of hundred miles. I'm sure that the BBC thought this through and factored in a change in personnel. The BBC already has a large facility on Oxford Road which I assume will also be moving so it is not as if they don't already have a fairly large resource pool already here that will fill some of the gaps that non transferring staff will create.

Or you could be balanced and live out West. Loike.

Bloody Northerners. They'll whinge about not having the BBC and then they'll whinge about having it. Fair dues though, how they find all the time to whinge while working their arses off for so little money, I'll never know - it's testament to their ingenuity to say the least. 🙂

If I do decide to watch one of the BBC's world infamous poor quality programmes, I then have to quickly switch over to ITV to find out what I should buy.

I don't watch much TV to be honest. And if I do, it's normally something of interest i've Sky+ed, rather than just sitting down to see what's on the telly and watching the best of a bad bunch.

The quality of the programmes may be better than ITV's, but that doesn't make them any more interesting to me.

London is still the 4th best city in the South of England.

...actually, make that 5th best, I forgot about Bath.

A joke that clearly missed the mark

Well if you are going to make jokes on what is clearly a very serious thread, then it's hardly surprising if it goes straight over my head.

🙄

🙄

that was amazing self restrain to to both read all the way to the end of that bitter rantette and just pick out that one sentence. Chapeau

In the olden days the regions had buoyant TV (and related) sectors. The BBC and ITV had news rooms and studios in the country's major cities. Over time it became more efficient to close these facilities, move some of the functions together (for economies of scale) and/or outsource activities to the growing number of independent production companies/suppliers. TV production was once characterised by large organisations making pretty much everything in-house (aka Fordist production), but that changed with outsourcing. It made sense for these indies to be close to the commissioners (i.e. the broadcasters) so there was a gradual shift of companies and facilities to London, increasing its share of production.

There are a number of theories which explain why companies decided that locating in London, despite the addition costs, was worthwhile. I teach an entire third year course on this sort of thing so i'll not go into detail, other than to point out the following:

a) if you're doing business with a lot of suppliers/buyers it is cheaper to do this business if you're located nearby (the time and cost of getting to and from meetings, sending products, supplies, scripts, equipment etc is reduced)

b) to be competitive it makes sense to monitor what your rivals are doing - this is easier to do if you locate near them

c) a lot TV is about trends and fashions and technology that allows you to produce fresh, exciting content, at in new and more efficient ways. To monitor what is hot and what is not, you need to be around the people innovating and setting trends.

d) if you want to find out what the newest commissions are, and what the commissioners are considering putting tenders out for, you need to be near these people so you can read the signs

So, the net result is the TV industry clusters in a few large cities. It is dominated by London, and there are regional hubs - Bristol for natural history, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff (the latter two benefit from Scottish and Welsh programming budgets from the BBC and C4, as well as major commissions such as Dr Who and Torchwood for Cardiff).

The fact that most of TV production comes from London is annoying for some people for a series of interconnected reasons, some of which are mentioned on this thread. The most obvious is Londoncentric reporting. Yes Westminster is in London and so is the City, but most of the politics and most of the economy are found outside the capital. They are important, but if as a reporter that is all you see because you live there, and it is all you concentrate on because they are on your doorstep, you become blinded to everything else. This myopia means that many of important event get overlooked because they are happening elsewhere.

We can think about this problem in terms of a 'democratic deficit' and a 'cultural deficit' to what gets produced on TV. In the case of the BBC, most of their income comes from outside of London, but most of what gets shown on the BBC reflects - explicitly and implicitly - London. Think about the last time you saw your hometown appear on the BBC - you can probably remember because it is the exception. Even when places outside London do appear, they are often stereotypes. This isn't simply because of how London TV types see the rest of the country, but the media bubble around the capital doesn't help. Even if that can be avoided, the lack of indigenous production in the regions means perspectives will almost always be from outsiders looking in.

The net result is the BBC are being made to produce more stuff outside of London. The step was that a number of years ago the BBC was instructed that 25% (i think) of production should come from the 'nations and regions'. That is why Cardiff got Dr Who and Torchwood. The next phase of this is moving stuff to Salford.

I'll write some more later is anyone is interested, i've been sitting down too long (currently have a back injury from coming off my bike).

CaptJon - Don't be coming around here with your rational, thought-through and well-presented arguments. This thread is all about reactionary and lazy regional stereotyping. Can we get back to that please

ahem..... everyone who lives south of Watford smells of wee. So there!!!

IIRC binner it's coz they cant hold their shandy

I find that argument difficult, binners, as i was born in Laaadon, but have lived in Newcastle for the past eight years... i'm torn.

Will the BBC now have to add a Southern England correspondent to their staff

They have

Northern England
Eastern England
Midlands
West of England
South West of England
Scotland
Northern Ireland
Wales

.......... but no Southern

Wait I've got to go out then I've got stuff to do but I'll try and get along later to sort all this out. Please try to play nice until I get back.

X

.......... but no Southern

There may be some southern correspondents lurking around in here, I vote we move them all to London. There can't be that much going on in Reading ffs:

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/buildings/south.shtml ]BBC SOUTH[/url]

They've only got 1 corresspondent for the North East, Yorks and Humber, and North West?

There's already been quite a bit of interest from the BBC employees for housing stock in our area( South Manchester).

For a princely sum of £600,000 ( a drop in the ocean for some London based selbs) you can get a very generous property with country views, at least 4 bedrooms, a parcel of land, however as everyone knows we still only have outside bogs here!

Is everything still black and white up there or do you have colour now?

s everything still black and white up there or do you have colour now?

I hear that Mr Faraday's Elastic Trickery is to be installed soon

Having lived in the North for 18 years, Midlands for 5 years and South for 12 years I can categorically tell you that the South is WAY WAY WAY better. London is where its at.

Must be something in the water that makes people so miserable and ugly - anyone ever been to Wolverhampton?

You do have the lakes, peaks and easy access to the welsh and scottish hills though so well done on that.

🙂

100% of Mancs have no sympathy for the BBC staff who don’t fancy it and we look forward to taking their jobs.

As for London being ‘where its at’, if unsustainable living costs and ridicules commuting is ‘it’ then I agree.

I know Nick Robinson - chief political editor (I know his brother) is From South Manchester, so will probably be delighted to 'come home'. Although in his case he's better off in London with the politicians and government in general.

Must be something in the water that makes people so miserable and ugly - anyone ever been to Wolverhampton?

Erm.... Wolverhampton isn't in the north, shows how much you know. 🙄

[img] [/img]

uwe-r - Member
100% of Mancs have no sympathy for the BBC staff who don’t fancy it and we look forward to taking their jobs.

Surely being literate and able to speak in a manner understood by all is a pre-requisite for these jobs?

😉

Erm.... Wolverhampton isn't in the north, shows how much you know.

I know, it gets worse as you move further north!

All of you stop being silly.

Well if you are going to make jokes on what is clearly a very serious thread, then it's hardly surprising if it goes straight over my head.

I got told off earlier for it.

Just out of interest... When the BBC move north are they going to be leaving a huge patch of prime land to be sold off for development?

Yeah, it's terrible up here - stay away.

(This is what I was doing when you were all at work on tuesday 😀 )

[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5291/5571374227_92c57636c0_b.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5291/5571374227_92c57636c0_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/grum_wynne/5571374227/ ]Hellvelyn Mountain Biking (4 of 5)[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/grum_wynne/ ]Grum Wynne[/url], on Flickr

Harry_the_Spider - Member

[b]"All of you stop being silly."[/b]

Well if you are going to make jokes on what is clearly a very serious thread, then it's hardly surprising if it goes straight over my head.

[b]"I got told off earlier for it"[/b].

So where's the "telling off" then ?

Explaining to you that your subtle ironic humour went straight over my head, hardly constitutes a "telling off".

I was simply pointing out that I'm not wise to this subtle forum banter. I don't do sarcasm.

be fair grum whist you were doing that descent they could go two junctions on the M25 or catch a tube to the next zone

FFS Ernie. Is it my turn today?

I'll leave you to it.