BBC Studioworks

For the BBC's production division, see BBC Studios.
BBC Studioworks
Private subsidiary
Industry Broadcasting
Predecessor BBC Resources Ltd.
Founded 1998
Headquarters London, England
Area served
 United Kingdom
Parent BBC
Website www.bbcstudioworks.com

BBC Studioworks Limited, formerly BBC Studios and Post Production Ltd is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC, providing television studios, post production and related services to the market.[1]

It works with broadcasters and production companies, making award-winning content for the likes of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky, Endemol Shine and FremantleMedia. Titles range from Deal or No Deal and A League of Their Own, to EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing.[2]

When BBC Television Centre in West London was temporarily closed for redevelopment in 2013, Studioworks consolidated its London studios business onto two sites in Borehamwood, BBC Elstree Centre and Elstree Studios. On the BBC Elstree Site, it operates the Studio D facility - a large TV Studios and home to Children in Need and Election broadcasting as well as titles such as ITV's Celebrity Juice. It is also home to the company's post production village and the site where it provides studio and post production services to EastEnders. Across the road at Elstree Studios, it hires a mix of stages which have been converted into TV studios and range in size from 7,500 sq ft to 15,770 sq ft. This conversion was financed on a co-investment basis between Elstree Studios and Studioworks. BBC Studioworks will be expanding its footprint in 2017 when it reopens Television Centre in 2017 where it will operate Studios 1, 2 and 3.[3] as well as post production facilities.

The company was rebranded from BBC Studios and Post Production Ltd to BBC Studioworks Ltd in May 2016.[4]

History

The company was originally established as the much broader BBC Resources Ltd operation in 1998,[5] making an operating profit of £1.3 million in its first full year.[6] It was divided into four business units: BBC Studios, BBC Post Production, BBC Outside Broadcasts, and BBC Costume and Wigs.

A team led by Andrew Thornton were appointed by the BBC to manage the sale, with Ernst & Young acting as external advisers. The team were accountable to a BBC steering group including Zarin Patel and Peter Salmon. Advertisements were placed in the Financial Times, The Times and Broadcast on 16 August 2007 inviting expressions of interest for the acquisition of this commercial subsidiary, with the aim of completing the transfer of engagements by the end of March 2008, subject to contract negotiations and approvals.[7]

On 6 November 2007 The Guardian reported[8] that the privatisation could be left with a shortfall of up to £15m to cover the transfer of the pensions of BBC Resources staff to a potential new employer.[9]

The BBC has never released the names of the short-listed companies,[10] with The Guardian reporting - in early 2008 - more leaks over concerns about pension obligations and asbestos exposure.[11] On 7 March 2008 it was announced that the outside broadcast division would be sold, as expected, to Satellite Information Services[12]- with a surprise announcement that the studios operation (employing around 350 staff at Television Centre and Elstree) would remain in BBC ownership.[13]

The BBC Costume and Wigs division closed in February 2008, as it was no longer commercially viable and the costumes were sold as a going concern to Angels Costumiers.[14] Following a lengthy sales process, which was announced in December 2005 but delayed until August 2007, BBC Outside Broadcasts was sold in March 2008 to SIS Communications.[12]

In August 2008 Mark Thomas became CEO of BBC Resources.[15] On 1 December 2008 the management team announced that nearly 200 jobs would be lost by June 2009 as part of a restructuring move to make the business smaller, more flexible and resilient to changes in demand.[16] This affected up to 38 Editors, 26 Assistants as well as operational staff, administration and support staff.[17]

In early June 2008, the fate of the third business was put on hold with the BBC stating that "for the time being, we are no longer actively in discussion with a buyer for Post Production" and that "like Studios, Post Production will remain within BBC Resources, which will continue to operate as a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC". The BBC staff newspaper Ariel had reported on 18 March that Post's 400 staff had been told that the BBC "may need to look at other solutions if the business is not sold at this stage". Figures show that £3.4m had been spent on "consultants, legal and internal costs" during the sell-off.[18] The sale of BBC Outside Broadcasts generated a profit of £7.7 million.[19]

In April 2009 the company announced it was merging the Studios and Post Production Ltd businesses, changing the company name to BBC Studios and Post Production and appointing a new leadership team.[20] The company made a small trading loss in 2008-09. However, it made a small operating profit in 2009-10.[21]

In September 2012, Anna Mallett joined BBC Studio and Post Production as CEO[22] and led the company through the move out of Television Centre into two new locations - Elstree and South Ruislip.

In October 2014, Anna Mallet left the company to take the lead in developing production proposals within the wider BBC. David Conway was appointed Managing Director of BBC Studios and Post Production from the role of Chief Operation Officer, which he held from May 2012.[23]

Facilities

Logo of BBC Studioworks

Other historical news covering the company's projects and facilities are described below

In 2010, BBC Studioworks made a stereoscopic 3D Strictly Come Dancing trail for Children in Need at Television Centre. Its 3D team, along with 3Ality Digitals Stereographer Scot Steele, provided full studio and post production services for the three-minute 3D film featuring an Argentinean tango.[24]

In 2010, BBC Studioworks carried out a major technology refresh for EastEnders at its Elstree site in Hertfordshire, introducing new HD and tapeless workflows to support the show as it moved to HD in autumn 2010.[25]

In October 2010, on the back of a successful relationship with Endemol, BBC Studioworks secured a multimillion-pound contract with Endemol, providing studios and post production services for Channel 4's Deal or No Deal at the Paintworks in Bristol. As part of the deal, BBC Studioworks took over the lease of the studio.[26][27] In 2013, the company then moved the Deal or No Deal production to Bristol City Council's Bottle Yard facility when the Paintworks facility was closed for redevelopment.

In March 2011 BBC Studioworks expanded its digital restoration and archive services by investing in Scanity from Digital Film Technology, a 2K film to file scanner.[28] It also installed a new digital Media Hub facility in April 2011, providing centrally managed and highly scalable systems for global file delivery, transcoding, media storage, duplication, library digitisation and file-based quality check services.[29] In autumn 2011 it digitally restored The Trumptonshire Trilogy for DVD and Blu-ray release.[30] This restoration project was met with wide acclaim, including coverge on various TV outlets.

In October 2012, the company announced it would be moving its Digital Media Services business which preserves, re-masters and manages content through its archiving, restoration and digital distribution services, from BBC Television Centre in Central London to a new permanent facility at Odyssey Business Park, South Ruislip from early 2013. The new facility opened in March 2013.[31] Several technology upgrades have been made since the move. In April 2014, BBC Studioworks' Digital Media Services business invested in Front Porch Digital DIVArchive content storage management and DIVAdirector digital asset management systems.[32] Further technology upgrades were made in a TMD Mediaflex asset management system[33] and a Pixit Media Storage solution in 2015.[34]

Up until 2013, BBC Studioworks had four fully equipped permanent HD studios at Television Centre in central London. It upgraded its largest studio, Studio One to HD back in 2006[35] and supported Strictly Come Dancing, which was the first live HD entertainment show in the UK.[36] Studio Eight followed in 2007[37] and acted as the hub for the global Live Earth concerts in July of that year, supporting 22 hours of live HD coverage going out to over 135 countries across the world.[38] Studio Four was upgraded to HD in September 2008.[39] The last studio to go HD at Television Centre was Studio Six, also thought to be the UK’s first 1080p/50 Hz 3D capable TV studio.[40] Television Centre closed on 31 March 2013, and three of the studios will be refurbished and repoended by Studioworks in 2017.

At Elstree Film Studios, co-investments were made to Stage 8 and Stage 9 (7,500 sq ft HD studios) by Studioworks and Elstree Studios in 2013 to open them as TV studios. New laser levelled floors and permanent HD galleries were installed and green rooms and dressing rooms for talent were also improved.

In July 2013, BBC Studioworks completed the build of a brand new gallery suite at the George Lucas Stages at Elstree Film Studios to support large-scale TV productions.[41] The galleries are located on the ground floor with direct access onto Stages 1 and 2 and equipped with HD technology redeployed from BBC Television Centre, as well as new technology and a series of upgrades. These stages have since hosted shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice and A League of Their Own.

In March 2015, BBC Studioworks upgraded its audio production gallery at the George Lucas Stage to a Studer Viista X large-scale mixing console technology for broadcast.[42]

In October 2015, BBC Studioworks announced plans to realign its business to place more focus on its core services of studios and post production related activity by moving out of certain non-core digital media handling activities. As part of the realignment, the Digital Media Services (DMS) arm of the business, based in South Ruislip, ceased trading in its current form.[43] The company stated that it remains committed to its studio and post production operations in Elstree, and other locations, and the company will return to Television Centre in September 2017 in order to reopen studios 1 to 3 alongside new post production facilties.

BBC Costume + Wigs

Up until 2008, BBC Costume and Wigs - trading as part of BBC Resources' Studios division - was the second largest collection of its kind in the UK, after the suppliers Angels The Costumiers. The department closed in February 2008, as it was no longer commercially viable. Its future had been under review for some time and after exploring a range of options, the management team concluded that the best option was to close the department and dispose of the stock.[14]

The initial sale of the collection fell through - the interested party was thought to have been prop hire company Superhire - and on 14 February 2008 the department ceased trading,[44] with a BBC spokeswoman adding that "the arrangements [the corporation] was pursuing have not worked out and BBC Resources is currently inviting interested parties to consider making an offer to purchase."[45]

The costume collection - consisting of over 1 million items - was eventually sold to costume house Angels and Bermans on 30 March 2008.[14] This allowed for the BBC costume stock to remain within the UK, and be available to British and international TV and film productions in the future.[46]

The collection of wigs was sold separately to The Wig Store Limited a management buy-out put together by Philippa Devon and Alan Godleman.[47]

References

Wikinews has News related to BBC Resources:
  1. ↑ "Broadcast Tech".
  2. ↑ http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/who-we-are-2/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ h http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/our-services/studios/television-centre/
  4. ↑ www.bbcstudioworks.com/blog/bbc-studios-post-production-rebrands-bbc-studioworks/
  5. ↑ "BBC to launch new commercial subsidiary following DCMS approval". BBC. 2002-01-23. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  6. ↑ "BBC Corporate Online - About Us - Accountability - Annual Report 2000". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on July 11, 2000. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  7. ↑ http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/news/070815_res_sale.html
  8. ↑ Conlan, Tara (2007-11-06). "BBC sell-off hit by £15m hitch (Media Guardian - 6 Nov. 2007)". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  9. ↑ Wikinews:BBC Resources sale could be unprofitable
  10. ↑ Conlan, Tara (2008-01-14). "MP raises fears over BBC Resources (Media Guardian - 14 Jan. 2008)". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 16 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  11. ↑ Conlan, Tara (2008-02-08). "BBC Resources poised for breakup (Media Guardian - 8 Feb. 2008)". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  12. 1 2 "BBC announces successful bidder for BBC Outside Broadcasts". BBC. 2008-03-07. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  13. ↑ Conlan, Tara (2008-03-07). "BBC Resources to be split up (Media Guardian - 7 March 2008)". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  14. 1 2 3 "New home for BBC costume archive". BBC News. 2008-03-30.
  15. ↑ Brittain, Nicola (2008-07-09). "Thomas appointed Resources chief exec". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  16. ↑ Strauss, Will (2008-12-02). "Thomas: cut jobs or make losses". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  17. ↑ Holmwood, Leigh (2008-12-01). "BBC Resources to axe 210 jobs". The Guardian. London.
  18. ↑ Conlan, Tara (2008-06-27). "BBC Resources spends £3.4m on consultants to advise on sell-off". The Guardian. London.
  19. ↑ BBC Resources Financial Statements 31 March 2009
  20. ↑ Strauss, Will (2009-03-31). "BBC Resources to be re-named". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  21. ↑ http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology/bbc-spp-set-to-wield-jobs-axe/5012326.article
  22. ↑ http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/blog/new-ceo-appointed-for-bbc-studios-and-post-production/?source=category
  23. ↑ "David Conway appointed Managing Director of BBC Studios and Post Production". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  24. ↑ Neilan, Catherine (2010-10-19). "BBC creates 3D Strictly trailer". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  25. ↑ Strauss, Will (2010-03-18). "BBC moves closer to HD EastEnders". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  26. ↑ "THE BBC has signed a multi-million pound contract which will see production of Bristol- based quiz show Deal Or No Deal handed over to the corporation.". This is Bristol. 2010-10-26. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  27. ↑ Pennington, Adrian (2010-10-14). "BBC S&PP strikes Endemol deal". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  28. ↑ "BBC S&PP buys Scanity". Broadcast. 2011-03-24. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  29. ↑ Bevir, George (2011-04-07). "BBC S&PP in £500k digital drive". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  30. ↑ "Trumptonshire Trilogy - BBC Studios and Post Production". Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  31. ↑ "Digital Media Services relocates to a new home - BBC Studios and Post Production". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  32. ↑ "Digital Media Services invests in content storage management system". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  33. ↑ "BBC S&PP collaborate on asset management and archiving service". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  34. ↑ "Pixit Media meets storage and network challenges for BBC S&PP". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  35. ↑ Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  36. ↑ Merrett, Andy (2006-10-30). "HDTV makes makeup harder to do". HDTV UK. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  37. ↑ Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  38. ↑ "BBC Resources Supports Massive HD Broadcast For 'Live Earth' Concerts". 4rfv.co.uk. 2007-07-10. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  39. ↑ Strauss, Will (2008-09-02). "Ross chat show goes HD". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  40. ↑ Strauss, Will (2010-09-01). "S&PP plans Studio Six upgrade". Broadcast. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  41. ↑ "BBC Studios and Post Production builds new galleries for George Lucas Stages - BBC Studios and Post Production". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  42. ↑ "The People's Strictly for Comic Relief-BBC Studios and Post Production". Retrieved 2015-07-03.
  43. ↑ "Televisual | NEWS & COMMENTS". www.televisual.com. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  44. ↑ Conlan, Tara (2008-02-14). "BBC costumes arm in limbo". The Guardian. London.
  45. ↑ MacIntyre, James (2008-02-15). "Sale of BBC costumes on hold as buyout fails". The Independent. London.
  46. ↑ http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/news/080330_angels.html
  47. ↑ http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/20282

External links

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