The BBC announces major investment in Belfast’s iconic Broadcasting House site

Proposals to transform the iconic building, its technology and facilities were approved today by the BBC Board, with the BBC Director General, Lord Tony Hall, announcing the investment to staff this afternoon.

The £77 million investment further highlights the BBC’s commitment to audiences in Northern Ireland by creating a technologically advanced broadcast centre to serve future generations, while also retaining its long heritage in Broadcasting House on Ormeau Avenue, Belfast.

The development is the result of a rigorous process focusing on value for money and the needs of audiences in Northern Ireland.

The investment will:

• Create a much more accessible building with improved and new audience areas to enhance the experience and time spent with the BBC. There will also be improvements made to the television studio in BBC Blackstaff which is home to a wide range of popular shows.
• Provide a space that accommodates all BBC NI’s Belfast-based staff and encourage natural collaboration and creativity to maximise the value audiences get from BBC NI content and services.
• Establish a ‘technology centre of excellence’, allowing BBC NI to take advantage of new and evolving technologies to stay ahead of audience demand in the digital age and to test new approaches for the whole BBC. It will also allow BBC NI to optimise its current leading edge technology – such as the new state-of-the-art, hybrid BBC Newsline studio and renovated BBC Radio Ulster studios.
• Retain BBC Northern Ireland’s historical site. This central location will continue to be a cultural destination for the whole community and a home for entertainment, learning and debate.
• Minimise the building’s environmental footprint associated with energy, water and waste.

BBC NI has a long history at Broadcasting House. Original plans for the now-listed building were officially announced 80 years ago, in February 1938 with the building being completed in 1941 despite the outbreak of World War II.

A freehold site in the heart of Belfast City Centre, the building currently requires major work to ensure its long-term sustainability and to address critical deficiencies that incur higher running costs and restrict modern ways of working.
With audiences accessing content in rapidly changing ways, across numerous platforms and media, this investment will ensure that BBC Northern Ireland has the best infrastructure and technologies in place to meet the future needs of its audiences.

Peter Johnston, Director, BBC Northern Ireland, says: “Eighty years ago, in spring 1938, the original plans for the first Broadcasting House were revealed. It’s fitting, that today, we announce this new investment by the BBC which will maintain and enhance our rich heritage and history on this site in exciting new ways well into the future.

“Doing nothing was not an option. This is a big decision for the BBC and it’s about much more than just bricks and mortar. This major investment is a commitment to licence fee payers in Northern Ireland and will help us to become a more efficient and flexible broadcaster, better equipped to meet the needs of our diverse audience for years to come.”

Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, says: “This is another sign of our commitment to Northern Ireland. We’ve already made the biggest single investment the BBC has made in Northern Ireland in 20 years which is going to transform our digital output. Now we’re making sure we have a Broadcasting House fit for the digital age, giving audiences more access, ensuring we can give them the best possible programmes and making sure we operate as efficiently as possible.”

JM4

Notes to Editors

• BBC NI’s ambition is to redefine and reinvent the content and services it offers audiences for a digital age. This requires refreshed and new facilities that enable it to exploit the full potential of the content it currently creates - and the content it aims to make - as audiences consume its output in rapidly changing and flexible ways.
• BBC NI considered a number of options to meet its ongoing and future requirements, including relocating to a different site and building a new broadcasting centre. Investing in its existing freehold site provides the best value for money, enabling it to transform the building to meet its audience needs and technology and staff requirements in the most cost-effective manner.
• Investing in Broadcasting House will enable BBC NI to refresh its future technology and engineering upgrades as they are needed - not in one major revision driven simply by a building programme. It will mean that it can take advantage of key developments in the media technology industry as they arise.
• This investment will allow BBCNI to establish a Technology Centre of Excellence benefiting the whole of the BBC and building upon partnerships with Queen’s University Belfast and the Ulster University, Northern Ireland Screen and Libraries NI.
• BBC Northern Ireland is currently responsible for leading BBC innovations such as the landmark Project Rewind, which is digitally archiving BBC broadcast material.
• As well as investing in technology and facilities, this investment will also help provide much needed external resources such as a newly improved outside broadcast vehicle.
• BBC Broadcasting House in Belfast was completed in 1941. Additional buildings were added in the 1970s and 1980s. The last substantial refurbishment was in the 1980s.
• The investment addresses critical deficiencies in the long-term sustainability of BBC Northern Ireland’s Belfast sites.
• The current site has disjointed buildings and restricted disabled access. The building is almost 80 years old and repairs and maintenance are becoming increasingly expensive and the building is not as energy efficient as desired.
• Current work space is inflexible, fragmented and inefficient. Production teams are split across multiple locations using temporary solutions such as mobile offices and annexes– some of which have been in place for more than 12 years.
• The investment plans are benchmarked against other BBC building programmes and involved internal and external audits and reviews, including: BBC Workplace, KPMG, architects Sheppard Robson, engineering consultants ARUP, cost consultants Robinson Low Francis.
• Broadcasting House Belfast is an iconic site in Belfast City Centre and its central location allows easy transport access for audiences and staff alike.
• The contractual and building work is forecast to run for approximately six years from 2018-2023.
• To ensure there is no disruption to output, contingency plans will be in place during the building phase.
• This investment into New Broadcasting House Belfast comes less than a year after the BBC announced an £11 million investment over three years into BBC Northern Ireland content and services, to benefit audiences in Northern Ireland.
• The next stages of plans and development will be announced in due course.