Northwest Indies Meet Top BBC Commissioners

SOME of the BBC’s top commissioners spent time at Salford Quays, talking to the region’s independent production companies about new opportunities, commissions and ideas.

The BBC Vision Commissioning Briefing was organized by Krishan Arora, Independents Executive at the BBC, who welcomed delegates to the event, held at the Imperial War Museum, North. Among the BBC executives attending were Children’s Commissioner, Michael Carrington, Jo Twist of BBC 3, Richard Klein of Factual, and from Comedy, Lucy Lumsden and Cheryl Taylor.

The event was supported by Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the TV, film, radio and digital content industries to grow a world-class media economy in England’s Northwest.

Alice Morrison, Chief Executive of Vision and Media, spoke to the packed hall of 100 independents about Salford Quays’ Media Enterprise Centre, which is planned within mediacity:uk. The MEC, she said, would greatly benefit the region’s indie sector.

“The MEC will be a one-stop-shop for independent production companies,” explained Alice. “We’ve looked very carefully at what people want from a MEC, and we intend to provide that. So there’ll be events, like this BBC commissioning event, and opportunities for people from within all sectors of the industry to get together and work together.

“There’ll also be a programme of activity which brings together people from different companies to work together, supported by funding, which will hopefully eventually lead to new commissions within the Northwest. And thirdly, there’ll be funding available, helping people develop their business.”

It is hoped the MEC will be up-and-running by the end of 2008, and until then Vision and Media will continue to offer production support from its base at the BBC Manchester.

Speaking at the conference, BBC executives listed some of the commissioning slots currently available to indies, and urged delegates to regularly log on to the commissioning website for further information www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning

Also speaking at the BBC Commissioners Briefing was Jason Leggett, the Northwest Development Agency’s Project Director for mediacity:uk. He told delegates he was convinced mediacity:uk would lead to global business opportunities for Northwest companies.

“mediacity:uk will represent the UK’s creative talent across the whole world,” he said. “We’re into the first phase of what will a significant, 25 year project, with £500m of private investment already planned for the project.”

After the presentations, Northwest production companies were able to have private one-to-ones with all the BBC commissioners, in a bid to convince them their ideas should be taken on board.