Background
In 2003, reports emerged that, as part of the plans for the renewal of its royal charter, the BBC was considering moving whole channels or strands of production from London to Manchester and closing Pebble Mill in Birmingham.[8] Early discussions involved a plan whereby the BBC would move to a new media village proposed by Granada Television at its Bonded Warehouse site at Granada Studios in the city.[9][10]
Proposals to relocate 1,800 jobs to Manchester were unveiled by Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, in December 2004. The BBC's justification for the move was that its spending per head was low in northern England, where it had low approval ratings, and its facilities at New Broadcasting House in Manchester needed replacing.[11][12] An initial list of 18 sites was narrowed to a short-list of four during 2005, two in Manchester – one at Quay Street, close to Granada Studios, and one on Whitworth Street and two in Salford – one close to the Manchester Arena and one at Pier 9 on Salford Quays.[13] The site at Salford Quays was chosen in June 2006, and the move north was conditional on a satisfactory licence fee settlement from the government.[14]
The chosen site was the last undeveloped site at Manchester Docks, an area that had been subject to considerable investment and was emerging as a tourist destination, residential and commercial centre. The vision of the developers Peel Group, Salford City Council, the Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company and the Northwest Regional Development Agency was to create a significant new media city capable of competing on a global scale with developments in Copenhagen and Singapore.[5]
Salford City Council granted planning consent for an outline application for a multi-use development on the site involving residential, retail and studio and office space in October 2006[15] and consent for a detailed planning application followed in May 2007.[16] In the same month, the BBC Trust approved moving five London-based departments to the development.[17] The departments to be moved were Sport, Children's, Learning, Future Media and Technology and Radio Five Live.[18]
Construction started in 2007, with the initial site owner, Peel Group, as developer and Bovis Lend Lease as contractor.[19] The media facilities opened in stages from 2007; the first of them, the Pie Factory, was in a refurbished bakery. It featured three large sound stages suitable for drama productions and commercials.[20][21]
In January 2011, Peel Media received planning permission to convert on-site offices used by Bovis Lend Lease during the construction of the first phase into the Greenhouse.[22] In November 2024, Lansec acquired the ownership of MediaCityUK from Peel Group.[23]
The first trial show took place in November 2010 in Dock10 Studio HQ2.[24] The half-hour test show featured a power failure and a fire drill, which involved a full evacuation of the audience and crew.[24] The first programme filmed at Dock10 in MediaCityUK was Don't Scare the Hare in February 2011, and the first to transfer was A Question of Sport, the same month.[25] BBC employees started transferring to the development in May 2011, a process that took 36 weeks. Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson confirmed that up to a further 1,000 jobs could be created or transferred to the site.[26][27]
In January 2012, the BBC was accused of not supporting the community by the area's local MP, Hazel Blears, after it was reported that only 26 of 680 jobs created at the development had gone to residents of Salford.[28]
