Auntie needs to show Midlands love
DEAR Editor, Referring to Joe Godwin’s letter in last week’s Post.
I find it hard to believe that any analysis of BBC spending on network TV in the Midlands could possibly be described as a “weak measure”. In fact, it’s just as highly relevant for the Birmingham Post to judge the publicly funded broadcaster by how and where it spends its money for its core product, as it is for the Scottish or Welsh Governments or the politicians of the north of England.
Surely, it’s a sign of desperation or barrel scraping for Peaky Blinders to be put forward as an example of the BBC’s commitment to production in this region: made by a London independent from a production base in Liverpool. Four days of filming at the Black Country museum doesn’t count for very much, when months of filming have already taken place in Liverpool and er... Manchester!
Anyway, I spent an entertaining few hours trawling through the archives of the BBC website, to extract network TV spend for each of the last ten years.
Spending in the north has increased considerably, also in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Regional spending increases, wherever they may be should be welcomed, but let’s not try and hoodwink licence fee payers, regulators or Government that this represents a wholesale move out of London.
What the BBC’s own figures reveal is that spending has been transferred out of the Midlands, starting from an already low share in 2007, reducing progressively to a paltry 1.5 per cent in 2016.
At least half of that spend is represented by just one daytime programme, leaving us vulnerable to the whims of a programme commissioner based at BBC HQ in London.
If I was measuring and evaluating BBC spending I would say to Joe Godwin, yes, some progress has been made, but a lot more needs to be done and fast. This would be as much for the benefit of the BBC as for the Midlands, for I fear that BBC output is nowhere near as diverse as it should be, and public support for the Corporation continues to be severely eroded in its largest region - whose licence fee payers are not to be seen or heard in its peak time national output on any of its core TV or radio channels.
I would also ask Joe to spend some time fighting his corner for more budget and programme making for this regional outpost of the BBC, from those who make all the key decisions down at Broadcasting House.
Far better to beg for a few crumbs from Lord Hall’s table than to defend the indefensible transfer of so much tax payers’ money year in, year out, from the Midlands to London.
Mike Bradley, via email