Strike Impact: BBC

LONDON,
January 28: George McGhee, the
controller of program acquisitions at the BBC, is expecting a minimal impact on
the pubcaster’s schedules, noting “we may have to do a bit of minor tweaking
but that will be all.”

BBC One is currently
airing season one of Damages,
and the Golden Globe-winner for best drama, Mad Men, is due to launch on BBC Four in the coming weeks.
This spring will see the launch of season two of Heroes, and the broadcaster has also signed on for
additional seasons of The Tudors
and Medium, “but have not fixed
them in our schedules yet,” McGhee says.

“The BBC is very choosy
about ‘which’ acquired series it runs,” he continues, “and we are not nearly as
reliant on them as some of the other U.K. broadcasters.”

McGhee is expecting a
resolution to the strike soon, and he says he “seriously doubts it will
drastically alter any transmission plans we have in the near future. I actually
cannot see us having to fill slots with other programming and it is highly
unlikely that it will affect our overall scheduling strategy—we may have
to do a bit of minor tweaking but that will be all.”

McGhee also thinks it’s
unlikely that the L.A. Screenings will go ahead this May. “None of the studios
have officially told us anything as yet but if they do happen then I am sure it
will be in the autumn and not in May.”

For
full coverage of the writers strike click here.

—By Anna Carugati
and Mansha Daswani