BBC threatens to abandon Manchester move

It seems fairly obvious that the BBC won't get all of its own way relating to the forthcoming licence fee settlement. Although Tessa Jowell is in favour of a larger-than-inflation rise for the licence fee, Gordon Brown (and Tony Blair) appear to favour a much smaller rise, so inevitably a compromise figure will be reached at some stage.

However the BBC wants to move key departments to Manchester (Salford to be precise) AND needs money for the digital switchover; both of these being very expensive propositions, therefore it needs all the money it can for both to take place. But if the BBC gets a significantly lower settlement then it would have to reluctantly abandon the Manchester move.

Ever since an intention to move some BBC departments north of Watford was announced, I have had my doubts relating to such a move purely on the basis of financial viability, and it now looks as if I was right. With more TV and radio channels to choose from, there is a much greater pressure on the licence fee to provide a multitude of services.

Plus there is a rarely discussed downside to moving key BBC departments. For example, children's television is the heaviest user of TV studios within the existing London TV Centre complex - Blue Peter alone uses one studio several times a week - so moving children's TV to Manchester would at a stroke render much of the London studios unused.

This in turn would make much of the BBC TV Centre complex vulnerable to being sold off to property developers as a result, and ultimately could then lead to downsizing/privatisation of parts of what's left of the BBC in London.

The Government's priority first and foremost is the analogue switchoff since that will earn revenue, therefore a lower licence fee settlement would from a government perspective please more of the electorate as well as showing the BBC that it can't get its own way over everything it wants.

Maybe Mark Thompson will have to resort to Plan B after all, and a more modest plan to simply increase the amount of money spent on regional productions might even turn out to be the best option for both the BBC and the regions, as the recent increase of investment in BBC Wales - home of Doctor Who and Torchwood - has already proven.