Central - huge job losses @ Birmingham & Nottingham

It's a shame about the news today. You would think they would rather close down Birmingham rather than Nottingham. Shame they don't make more use of Nottingham, an example would be Ministry of Mayhem, this being Carlton's baby you would think it would come from Nottingham, but it comes from Maidstone!

It is stupid, you would also think that CiTV should come from Nottingham, make use of the facilities. Very bad news indeed.

So what is going to happen to Carlton's studios? Are they going to be sold off to another broadcaster?

It's stupid that Central News East is moving to Birmingham too, shame they can't do sale and leaseback, where Carlton sell the studio and then lease it for the News. They would be forgiven slightly if CNE comes from a small newsroom from Nottingham like what other regions are going to do like Meridian.

I don't see how moving CiTV production from Birmingham would work, as they share the studio with Central News at 6, and they couldn't have two news programmes doing their programmes in the same studio at the same time.

It still begs the question where will a second news operation go to.
At the moment Central News West uses the only spare studio (used for CiTV may 1998- jan 2000) to house their CSO bulletins during GMTV, at 10:55, in the lunchtime news, at 3pm, and in the 10:30pm news.

ITV was forced to hold emergency meetings with staff at Central TV yesterday morning to confirm Broadcast’s revelations that 400 jobs would be axed.

Central managing director Ian Squires told staff that the jobs would be stripped out of the company with 200 going from Nottingham and up to 200 from Birmingham. He had planned to make the announcement in the week commencing 8 March.

Squires said the Nottingham studios will be sold off and a small digital studio will be set up in the area to provide regional news bulletins, but all Central East News presentation will move to Birmingham.

The move does not affect the 70 people working in Central’s Abingdon news base. They will continue as normal, keeping both presentation and newsgathering.

The news came as "bombshell" to staff, according to one employee, who added that Squires faced a hostile reception and some difficult questions at yesterday’s meetings in Nottingham at 10.00 and Birmingham at 12.30.

While many in Nottingham were resigned to the fate of the studios, as first revealed by Broadcast earlier this month, staff at Birmingham were visibly shocked. "There was no feeling whatsoever in Birmingham that there were going to be this level of job cuts. It was a massive shock," said one

Squires told staff that the studios in Nottingham, once home to shows from The Price is Right to Crossroads and Peak Practice, had to go as they were no longer profitable, losing around £2m a year. A spokesman added they had hardly made a profit in the last decade.

Squires said: "The business has moved in a different direction since the Nottingham studios were built 20 years ago, with the top drama and entertainment shows more likely to be made on location rather than in studio.

"In 1984, The Price is Right was made in the studios and was the UK's top rating entertainment show. Today, the top performing entertainment show is filmed live in an Australian jungle."

Nevertheless, the unions slammed the cuts. Bectu’s Nigel Mason said: "It's disastrous."

NUJ National Broadcasting Organiser Paul McLaughlin added: "The proposals to close Nottingham studios with the loss of hundreds of jobs will cut right into the heart of the Midlands community.

"In the process a corps of hundreds of highly skilled broadcast workers will be cast asunder. Regional communities deserve a proper broadcasting service, but for Central it seems it’s the shareholders who gain and the viewers who lose. In the long run the shareholders will lose as well because Central will not be a proper competitor to other broadcasters."

ITV will meet with the unions next week.

The forced meetings in Central were a major embarrassment for ITV as they came as some of the company’s most senior executives were enjoying a three-day strategy meeting at London’s five-star Park Lane Hilton hotel, where rooms cost £169 a night.

An ITV spokeswoman admitted that timing was not great but said the meeting had been in for a long time and was by no means a "lig or a jolly". "This is the first time in 50 years that top executives from ITV have come together to map out the future of the company. It’s a very serious strategy meeting," she said.

If CiTV is moved (say, to London or whatever) they could build a "temporary-esque" (but soundproof) wall down the middle of the studio! (CNwest on one side, CNeast on t'other side) etc



A (slightly) more sensible suggestion: all CNwest bullitens come from main set, and all CNeast from CSO set (making CNeast rather like AngliaWest).

They do seem hard-pushed to squeeze CNeast into the Brum building. Fair enough that the huge Nottingham site is not needed post-Crossroads, but why not acquire a "potting shed" elsewhere in Nottingham for a news-only, bare-bones EMids operation. An EMids service that's actually based in the EMids - wouldn't that be a novelty!

PLAN: CITV goes elsewhere. Wall down the middle of current CN West + CITV studio. Build CN East set. TX area made redundant = new gallery for CN East!

All this was on the cards when they allowed the merger last year-

PLAN: CITV goes elsewhere. Wall down the middle of current CN West + CITV studio. Build CN East set. TX area made redundant = new gallery for CN East!

PLAN: CITV goes elsewhere. Wall down the middle of current CN West + CITV studio. Build CN East set. TX area made redundant = new gallery for CN East!

All this was on the cards when they allowed the merger last year- it won't stop in Nottingham. We know that Granada are selling up in Manchester and moving to a 'purpose built' warehouse, though how a warehouse is purpose built is anyones guess.

All this was on the cards when they allowed the merger last year- it won't stop in Nottingham. We know that Granada are selling up in Manchester and moving to a 'purpose built' warehouse, though how a warehouse is purpose built is anyones guess. HTV studios are under threat, we know whats happened to Meridian. Yorkshire will be kept because of emmerdale and Countdown & Tyne Tees won't last long in its present form.