Media City Fry-Up, bumber July edition: Breakfast in Salford and yet more jobs…
posted Thu 15th Jul, 2010
If you haven't been following us on twitter or facebook (and why not?) you may have missed a busy week for MediaCityUK news.
- First off, the BBC has announced it's intention to relocate BBC Breakfast to MediaCityUK, Salford Quays. The story began as a strong rumour we picked up on twitter, followed by much speculation and generally negative responses from the national media.
The BBC moved quickly, and by Wednesday the move was officially announced. Helen Boaden, Director, BBC News, said: "BBC Breakfast is the most watched breakfast programme in the UK and loved by millions. It has a fantastic connection with audiences across the UK and we want to build on that."
Peter Salmon, director of BBC North said, "The move of Breakfast is especially symbolic as it is the first time a BBC Network News programme will come from outside London – a real vote of confidence in our new enterprise."
An attempt to create a full english Breakfast, if you like.
The move means that more than three hours a day of live BBC One output will now come from MediaCity, and around 88 roles across BBC Breakfast and operational posts are expected to relocate. It is yet to be seen how many current Breakfast staff will make the move.
You can read more details straight from the horses mouth. - Riding high on the wave of such an earth-shattering announcement, the BBC then surprised us all by announcing yet more jobs were heading to Media City, namely 43 positions from Marketing, Communications & Audiences and 75 from Future Media & Technology.
The BBC's Director of Future Media and Technology, Erik Huggers, said: "Just as Broadcasting House is associated with the rise of radio, and Television Centre with TV, I believe that MediaCity will become the BBC's centre for the internet age.
"Moving our connected TV and mobile product teams north, together with a core part of BBC Online, is very much part of realising this vision."
It was also announced that an additional two comedy shows will be commissioned by BBC North at MediaCity by 2012/13.
Sinead Greenaway, CEO at Peel Media (developers of MediaCityUK) reacted positively to this tidal wave of news - "We at Peel Media are delighted...This news is testimony to the BBC's commitment to make their new home here at MediaCityUK a success."
Again, you can read more details from the beeb itself.
How's that for a round-up? But wait, there's more! (I'll do these as one liners, I know you're busy)
- Salford Uni has announced the appointment of Jon Corner, founder of Liverpool based production house River Media, as their new MediaCityUK Director - replacing John Holland. More details here.
- Mammoth Graphics, who produce graphics for the BBC, ITV and Sky amongst others, have opened an office within The Pie Factory, MediaCityUK; their first base outside London. More details at How-Do.
- The Reverend Hayley Matthews has been named as chaplain to MediaCityUK by the Church of England. More from the BBC.
- Peter Salmon (Director, BBC North) has made it to no.84 in the Guardian's 100 most powerful people in media. Presumably after this week's announcements he'll be popping up a little higher next year.
- Peel Media is looking to fill a handful of new Technology and Studio-based roles at MediaCity - click here for the full list.
..so a busy couple of weeks overall, and still over a year to go before it's all truly up and running!
Be sure to follow our highly recommended twitter feed for all the late breaking MediaCity news...
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MediaCityUK Round-Up: New CTO, new Jobs, videos and a big cake
posted Wed 26th Aug, 2009 - 02:31 AM
It's been a while since we did a news round-up, so lets get going:
- MediaCityUK have appointed Red Bee's Paul Clennell (pictured) as chief technology officer. He is due to take up his new role at MediaCityUK in the autumn. You can see more details at Broadcast.
- MediaCityUK have begun searching for a 'Head of Studios' to maintain what will be the UK's largest high definition TV facility. If you fancy the six-figure salary (plus benefits) you can apply here.
- A number of other MediaCity-related jobs have come up recently including: An assistant for BBC Future Media & Technology (link); A Leader for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (link); and a Receptionist and a Training Manager for NorthWest Vision & Media (link - soon to be based at MediaCity).
- A couple of interesting videos surfaced this week - each embedded below for your enjoyment. The first is a news report from media trainee Natasha Carter, covering the progress of MediaCity and featuring interviews with David Carr (who recently resigned as Director of Operations), Jason Legget (Head of Business Development) and Lynne McCadden (Managing Director, NWV&M).
- Finally, Vertikal.net has a nice article about MediaCityUK's 2nd birthday, with a picture of the massive cake that was shared out amongst the 1,500 building contractors. Yum!
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Weekly Round-Up: Bose doesn’t fancy the MediaCityUK move, plus more…
posted Thu 06th Aug, 2009 - 11:34 PM
This has been quite a week for MediaCity news - and it's not even Friday yet.
Let's break it down...
- Firstly, MediaCityUK operations director David Carr resigned, saying "I’m really a Londoner and I miss London." The split is said to be amicable, with Carr looking forward to the future: "As for my next project, my dream would be to work on the Olympics.” Peel have not yet said if they will be looking for a replacement.
- BBC sports editor Mihir Bose (pictured) resigned, because of plans to move his role to MediaCity in 2011 (says the Evening Standard). A quick look at the comments shows that Bose was not universally popular with the Great British public, bless him.
- City AM reported that the BBC's move to Salford will cost £867m, with Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson saying the cost was "ludicrous" and the BBC's behaviour "Stalinist". The BBC said "The figures do not include the significant savings that will be made in moving departments out of London after 2013 to the North of England."
Other notable mentions this week...
- Kurt Stephens posted a response from the BBC following a FOI request asking why the BBC chose Salford as the base for BBC North. Download it here (pdf)
- Alex Connock (of Ten Alps) wrote a great article in Broadcast about the need for big creative ideas (and funding) to match the funding of media facilities such as MediaCity. Check it out.
- The new Pie Factory website went live last week, made by Code. It features a video walk through of the facilities and a list of the programmes that have been made on site thus far.
- Twitterer @Suitov started something of a mini-twitter-meme by tweeting lots of
usefuluseless Manchester trivia for the benefit of relocating BBC staff. Follow all the fun here, or check out a few of my favourites.
For all the latest MediaCity related news, you can of course follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
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Blue Peter garden still coming to MediaCity, minus dead pets
posted Tue 28th Jul, 2009 - 04:02 AM
The issue of the Blue Peter garden's relocation to Salford has once again been in the headlines after reports that it was to be replaced with a virtual reality version.
But those reports were quickly denied by the BBC: "There are no plans to have a virtual reality garden...Our plan is to move the real Blue Peter garden to MediaCityUK, our new television studios in Salford."
But is it really the Blue Peter garden without the remains of George the tortoise? (longest serving Blue Peter pet, and apparently the only one buried in the garden?)
Back in 2006 the Metro reported that there would be no exhumation of time capsules or pets, with a BBC spokesman saying, 'We are not digging up any dogs, cats or tortoises." Quite what will happen to these national treasures remains to be seen, as National Heritage recently said BBC Television Centre should be listed as a grade II building.
Earlier this month The Guardian reported that Peter Salmon (Director of BBC North) had indicated that the Blue Peter garden was going to go 'on the roof' when it moves to Salford. (The BBC has two buildings at MediaCityUK, which begs the question, which roof?)
The roof might well be a good location for the garden, after all nobody wants a repeat of the 21st November, 1983:
For more reaction to the Blue Peter garden's move, check out what people are saying on twitter.
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New aerial shots of MediaCity, and a weekly round-up… (Updated, annotated photo)
posted Wed 22nd Jul, 2009 - 08:51 PM | 4 comments
Wouldn't you like to see some brand new aerial shots of MediaCityUK? Of course you would! (full quality images after the jump)
These were taken last week (hence the sunshine) and provided by those lovely people at MediaCityUK.
And in other MediaCityUK related news;
- 55% of BBC Sport managers have decided to make the move North, continuing the recent trend and taking the average figure across the 5 relocating departments to 45%. The recent results indicate that a higher number of people than expected will decide to move to Salford.
- BBC North Director Peter Salmon wrote a piece for the Yorkshire Post emphasising the positive impact that the BBC's move to Salford is likely to have on the whole of the North, in particular the benefits for Northern talent - "In what is a very difficult climate, especially for young talent in the North, we will be out actively looking for talented people in the North for the new jobs which will be available."
- The Telegraph reports that the BBC's move to Salford could be anywhere from £1m to £91m more expensive than staying in London. A separate report compiled by relocation consultancy Governetz said the BBC could be "mired in an employee relations disaster" by September 09, because of a "weakness of project management control and wholly inadequate staff resourcing". The BBC said "We have never presented Salford as a money-saving project. In the long term - indeed, over 20 years - we expect savings on London operating costs."
- Damian Kavanagh has been appointed as Controller of CBBC, replacing Anne Gilchrist who declined the move to Salford. Kavanagh says: "I'm delighted to be heading back into BBC Children's and building on the incredible success CBBC has had to date. It's a very exciting time to be working in children's programming."
And finally, Peel's latest project has been given the go-ahead by Salford City Council - a £400m 'Port Salford'. The facility, which will provide five container berths for cargo ships, is likely to create as many as 2,000 jobs and will reduce the amount of freight on the northwest's roads by doubling traffic on the Manchester Ship Canal.
Update: I've added an annotated version of one of the ariel pics, to help you figure out what's what.
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I've just fixed the commenting system on the blog, which appears to have been malfunctioning for the past month or so. Apologies to anyone who has posted recently without any success, please do post again if you can be bothered! Jun 09, 2009 - 04:16 AM
CBBC are looking for new drama writers - if you fancy a future job at MediaCityUK check it out - http://bit.ly/10wvA0 May 21, 2009 - 01:14 AM
Not a lot of MediaCityUK news to report since the ITV bombshell, except perhaps this article from the FT about the positive impact MediaCityUK is likely to have on Salford and the surrounding areas. The article also provides a quick introduction to the local housing market - useful if you're looking at relocating to Salford. Mar 26, 2009 - 11:04 PM
Debate about the BBC's staff relocation packages continues to rumble on and on - Liz Hunt at the Telegraph says, "I can't be the only taxpayer with northern credentials who feels insulted by the implication that having to up sticks from the South East is akin to an enforced relocation to Mogadishu or Harare." (full article here). Meanwhile, Andy Spinoza at How-Do offers some relocation advice to BBC staff - "Some media people will find the value, community, and friendliness on offer in the likes of Monton and Eccles more appealing than the fancy nick-nack shops of Didsbury..." (full article here). Mar 13, 2009 - 12:22 AM
The Manyoo apartment towers in Salford Quays will be built, despite one of the developers behind it going into administration, reports the MEN. Manyoo will have 1,036 apartments over four towers that will `quite literally change the skyline of Salford Quays'. Mar 04, 2009 - 07:04 AM
Interesting article over at The Life of Wylie about the problems piling up for ITV; chief amongst them the need to make a decision about selling the Manchester site in Quay Street and moving to MediaCityUK, Salford. (via SalfordQuays.org) Feb 19, 2009 - 02:54 AM
Former journalist Aziz Rashid has been announced as the new head of BBC North West - "we have an exciting future ahead with our move to Salford Quays in 2011." (full article at the MEN) Feb 17, 2009 - 11:09 PM
The Guardian has a short article about some of the problems facing HBOS, one of which (according to the Guardian) is their £350m backing of MediaCityUK. (via SalfordQuays.org) Feb 17, 2009 - 11:00 PM
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