BBC Looks to Abandon Production Quotas

LONDON: Tony Hall, the BBC's director-general, has unveiled plans that would do away with the BBC's current programming quota system, also proposing that in-house producers should be able to make shows for other broadcasters.

Hall was speaking at the "Future of the Licence Fee" seminar in London when he described what could be a "competition revolution."

The current quota system sees 25 percent of BBC TV production guaranteed to independent producers, 50 percent guaranteed to BBC in-house producers and 25 percent left open to both in open competition. "Under the current rules some big, global producers no longer count as fully independent so their shows can’t go in the 25 percent of BBC television airtime guaranteed to independent producers," Hall said. "So a big long-running independently-produced series like MasterChef has had to move into the 25 percent window of creative competition that’s open to everyone. That squeezes out creativity and innovation. Big returning strands—brilliant as they are—now take up space designed for new ideas. A system set up to encourage competition and choice has begun to forcibly corral producers into three separate tribes."

He also noted how the BBC's production teams are currently only allowed to produce for the BBC, which has made it harder for the BBC to retain talent, who feel like they can be more "creative and competitive elsewhere." Hall said that he now wants the corporation's in-house program-making departments to be able to produce shows for other channels. "If independent producers can take their ideas to any broadcaster around the world, I would want the same for BBC Production," he said.

Hall continued: "And in return for removing those protections we would remove our own—in other words, the overall in-house guarantee for the whole of BBC Production. If we can make the whole system work properly, I will be the first to say we don’t need it."