The BBC's investment in a new hub for its West Midlands operations will help to add a further £282 million to the region's economy and create hundreds of jobs, according to a newly published report.
The corporation is currently preparing to relocate from its long-time home at the Mailbox in central Birmingham to a brand new facility in the converted former Typhoo factory in the city's Digbeth district.
A new report forecasts that its commitment to the West Midlands will bring an additional £282 million in gross value added to the region in the decade to 2031.
This represents an increase of 44 per cent on what otherwise would have been the case.
The independent study done by BOP Consulting, in partnership with City-REDI at University of Birmingham, said this growth was driven by the BBC's decision to invest more in the West Midlands creatively.
Since the launch of the Across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ programme and signing the West Midlands Memorandum of Understanding in 2021, the BBC said it had delivered its original commitments in full to the region.
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In recent months, BBC shows Silent Witness and MasterChef have gone into pre-production from new bases in Digbeth and Radio 1Xtra has relocated shows.
The Asian Network has begun consolidating with the aim of having the network entirely in the city by April. Three shows for the new Radio 1 Anthems stream on BBC Sounds will also be made in Birmingham.
The final episode of daytime drama Doctors is airing this week and the BBC said it had committed to reinvest all of that funding into new programming in the region and support the retention and development of scripted skills.
BBC Studios Drama Productions, which makes titles including Silent Witness, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Father Brown and Sister Boniface are setting up a regional hub and post-production facility in Digbeth.
In recent years, the BBC has come under heavy fire for its perceived lack of investment here as the West and East Midlands and East of England region collectively account for around a quarter of the licence fee.
Our sister newspaper the Birmingham Post spearheaded a campaign to drive awareness and encourage the corporation's bosses to spend more of their money in the West Midlands while lobby group the Campaign for Regional Broadcasting has been a long-time critic of its spending record.
According to the BBC's 2023/24 annual report, the total licence fee income was £3.66 billion yet network television programming spend was just 2.7 per cent of its total budget in this region.
By comparison, the North of England was 20.6 per cent although this does include the BBC's huge base in Salford.
The industrial area of Digbeth is now known as Birmingham's creative quarter and is home to 500 organisations alongside a burgeoning media production scene with the BBC relocation and Steven Knight's new studios.
The BBC said its work in the West Midlands was estimated to generate 910 additional full-time equivalent jobs supported by the broadcaster in the region.
It added that this could drive the creation of an additional 224 firms helping to support a further 7,603 FTE jobs in the region.
By 2031, this could lead to 18 per cent more creative sector jobs in the West Midlands and, by 2040, employment opportunities in the creative sector have the potential to double, according to the analysis.
Other firms cementing a presence in the region include Banijay Group, with its Shine and Kudos Knight firms setting up regional bases after receiving BBC commissions, while other suppliers such as Spun Gold and Full Fat TV call Digbeth home.
Spun Gold has produced Policing Paradise and are now making series 11 of Garden Rescue for the BBC from their base in Digbeth.
Separately, BBC commissioning executive Mark Harrison will have a permanent role based in the Midlands from where he will lead on commissioning for events and current affairs for the Midlands and North.
Director-General Tim Davie said: "This report highlights the scale of the opportunity for both the BBC and the region in the years ahead.
"We believe in making world-class content from Digbeth, putting the people and the place at the epicentre of the creative industries while reflecting their stories.
"We will continue to work closely with our partners and the authorities across the sector to keep pace with our ambition to unlock the full potential of the West Midlands."
