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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Media City Round-Up: Mandy visits Salford, a bigger Children’s budget and more jobs…
posted Wed 17th Mar, 2010 - 04:03 AM | 1 comment
Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson visited MediaCityUK last week as part of a visit to Manchester that included a speech at the University and the opening of a welding school in Salford.
Mandelson got a brief tour of the site, accompanied by Chairman of Peel Media Bryan Gray, and John Whittaker, Chairman of the Peel Group. The Salford Star managed to grab an interview with the man himself about MediaCity, which is well worth the read.
In other news:
- Crain's reports that BBC Children's (moving to MediaCity as part of the Salford move) will have an extra £10m in it's annual budget from 2013 - following the closure of 6music and the Asian Network (full article here). The proposed cuts have sparked much debate amongst listeners and BBC staff, not least on our own facebook page.
- How-Do says the BBC will now move the entire Learning Department to Salford, meaning an additional 32 posts at MediaCityUK. The BBC Learning Controller Saul Nassé said, "I can think of nowhere better for Learning to spend its future than as part of BBC North at MediaCityUK". Full article at How-Do.
- In another positive note for MediaCity, media consultancy firm K7Media has led a 'fact-finding mission' about MediaCityUK for CBS Paramount that received an "exceptionally positive" response, says How-Do. K7Media will be showing more international broadcasters around the site shortly, and their MD Keri Lewis Brown said, "The Salford development is, without question, attracting world interest to our region." Full article at How-Do.
- The Radio Academy has announced that the 2010 Radio Festival will take place in Salford Quays. Representatives of Global Radio, Bauer Radio, GMG Radio, Absolute Radio and the BBC are all on the committee for the festival, which takes place between the 18th and 20th October. More details at Radio Today.
- Luvthecity have an interview with local photographer Mark Whitfield, who has chronicled the construction of MediaCityUK with over 12,000 photos and maintains the MediaCity photographic timeline (Those are Mark's flickr photos on our homepage). Head over to Luvthecity for the full article.
That's all for now folks. For up to date MediaCity news and rumours, you can follow us on twitter or join our happening facebook fan page.
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MediaCityUK Round-Up: new tenants, £3m roundabouts and the cost of living at MediaCity…
posted Wed 10th Feb, 2010 - 05:15 AM
- Two new tenants have moved into The Pie Factory at MediaCity - MK-V, who make camera stabilisation systems, and Web Potential Ltd (autoplay video alert!), a web-video presenting company.
The new tenants are taking advantage of additional space that has been created, and join the broadcast systems integrator TSL and Toasted Productions, who both opened offices at The Pie Factory in the past six months. - A £3million roundabout refurbishment known as the 'quays gateway' has attracted criticism after being mentioned in Private Eye. Salford Council have approved plans to make a pedestrian 'destination' out of the roundabout at the end of the M602 - by relocating cranes and adding new pedestrian crossings and lighting. You can view the full plans here (2mb pdf).
The plans have been attacked by the Salford Star, but the Council have defended the plans at Salford Online, saying, "We are not talking about some minor modifications to an insignificant traffic island here, we are talking about a major engineering undertaking for the city’s busiest intersection...It is the natural gateway to our city and to the flagship developments of Salford Quays and MediaCityUK." Read more here, and at the Star. - Finally, the cost of living above the BBC has become clear, after Peel published a residential brochure for the two apartment blocks at MediaCity - 'TheHeart' and 'NumberOne'. Prices start at £135k for a one bedroom apartment. A quick search for apartments at the Quays shows those prices are fairly standard, - but if you had your eye on that £350k penthouse at NumberOne, you're out of luck as it's already sold.
Local photographer James Lester was not impressed however, as he tweeted, "Just come back from @mediacityuk apartments. Verdict: Great view, great broadband, if you like living in a cupboard. Very disappointed."
Other notable mentions this week:
- Claire Rainford, the head of Communication North with the BBC, is to become the head of communications across the BBC’s Children's and Learning departments, which will relocate to MediaCity in 2011. More info at How-Do.
- Looks like MediaCity will have it's own dentist - plans have surfaced for one to be located under the multi-storey car park alongside Booths. (from SkyScraperCity).
- Jason Legget, Head of Business Development at MediaCity will be speaking at the Navigating Media City event on 9th March at the Waterside Plaza in Sale. The event, put on by Creative Industries Trafford, will be an 'insiders' guide to the realities, opportunities and who's who of the MediaCityUK'.
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Urban explorers infiltrate MediaCityUK, take amazing photos
posted Wed 27th Jan, 2010 - 06:17 AM | 7 comments
Two urban explorers have visited MediaCity and taken some amazing night shots from the top of the 'Heart' apartments.
Known only as 'Jim Gillette' and 'Gone', our two fearless exploration experts managed to gain access to the construction site and headed to the top of the 25 floor apartment block.
From there they snapped some fantastic images of the BBC's new home on the quays, and surrounding Salford and Manchester.
Describing their adventure on his blog, Jim writes, "Security was, as to be expected, tight. But as these pictures show, it wasn't watertight ;)
"Fancying our chances, we went for it. After infiltrating the site itself, access to the 25 floor "Heart" apartment building was as inviting as an ice cold cider at the end of a long summer's day."
Commenting on the Urban Exploration forum 28dayslater, Gone says, "Entrance and exit was pretty crazy with a few slips".
The visit will no doubt raise concerns about security at MediaCityUK, but for now let's just relax and take in the view...
To see all the images, be sure to check out both Explorer's blogs at goneeightyfive.blogspot.com and jimgilletteue.blogspot.com
You can also follow the threads on the topic at the Urban Explorer forums 28dayslater and NWEX.
all images used with permission.
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Media City Round-Up: ITV resume talks, BBC launch jobs site and…3rd and Bird!
posted Mon 11th Jan, 2010 - 05:24 AM
According to the Guardian, ITV have now resumed talks with Peel to relocate their central Manchester site (including Coronation Street) to MediaCityUK.
ITV's move to the Quays has been long-expected, but negotiations broke down in March last year - with ITV's Chief Operating Officer John Cresswell claiming that Peel had "dramatically scaled back its financial commitment to the ITV element of the project."
The move now seems to be back on track, following the appointment of new ITV chairman Archie Norman. Bryan Gray, chairman of Peel Media said, "ITV have a particular requirement in Coronation Street. I can confirm that we've offered them a package." (more at the Guardian).
The BBC has launched their Jobs at BBC North mini-site, aimed at people interested in working for the BBC at MediaCity from 2011.
The site features information on the departments moving to the Quays (Radio 5 Live, Children's, Learning, Sport, and Future Media & Technology) and the job areas that the Beeb will be looking to fill.
There's also interviews with some of the various BBC staff who'll be making the move, most of whom seem pretty sold on MediaCity and can't wait to get up here. Here's director of BBC North Peter Salmon, selling the MediaCityUK vision -
Finally, American children's television company Little Airplane are the latest to be considering a base at MediaCityUK.
Little Airplane have offices in New York and London, and create '3rd & Bird' for CBeebies (CBeebies will relocate to MediaCity as part of BBC Children's) and the fantastic 'Wonder Pets!' for Nickelodeon Jr.
Founder Josh Selig was previously a writer on Sesame Street, and received ten Emmy Awards for his writing on the show.
Little Airplane will be visiting the site this week, and Josh Selig has confirmed to us that they are indeed interested in MediaCity, although no decisions have yet been made. In the meantime, check out the video below to find out more, or follow them on twitter at twitter.com/littleairplane
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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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