Television producers are a rare breed in the Midlands these days - and commissioners are rarer than rocking horse poo.
The Post has calling for at least 50 per cent of Midland licence fee funds to be spent here, after revealing while that is the case in all other regions, presently only .
There are currently , with daytime shows Doctors and Father Brown the feathers in the region's cap, and none of the output for BBC2, BBC3 or BBC4 is made here.
But it wasn't always that way - once upon a time nationally-respected shows like Dangerfield, Top Gear, Kinsey, Telly Addicts and Countryfile were produced at Pebble Mill.
The Post launched a campaign in February after revealing that while £942 million a year is raised from licence fees paid in the Midlands, only £80 million of that was reinvested last year.
For every family paying a licence fee in this region, the BBC spends just £12 while it invests £80 in the North, £122 in Wales and £757 in London.
The campaign has garnered , a , MPs from , led to a and is .
Central to it are a return of production and commissioning, which form part of five demands which have been sent to the BBC.
City MP Gisela Stuart has to correct the “extraordinary mismatch” in BBC spending which is hitting the Midlands hard.
Speaking in the , Ms Stuart (Lab Edgbaston) said: “There is an extraordinary mismatch between the amount of money raised by the licence fee and the BBC’s investment in the regions in which it is raised.
“May we have a debate on making it part of the charter negotiations that regional commissioners of programmes be matched to their areas, so that areas such as Birmingham and the Midlands can get a fair share of the money raised?”
The Midlands is the only Ƶ region outside the capital where spending has fallen in the past five years – from £100 million a year to £80 million.
However, the BBC has outlined plans to , which will mean an additional investment of £23.5 million over three years.
