Yahoo Finance ITV to shut London studio with 40-year history of top programming
The London television studio where some of the UK’s most popular shows of the last 40 years have been filmed is to be closed by ITV.
Programmes from Upstairs Downstairs to Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway have been shot at the London Studios on the capital’s South Bank but it is to close as a result of plans to redevelop the broadcaster’s headquarters on the same site. The closure is expected to lead to the loss of 140 jobs.
In an email to staff announcing the move, ITV’s chief executive, Adam Crozier, said there were plans to move back to the South Bank site once it was redeveloped but that there would not be a place for the studio.
“We’ve given very careful consideration to what our plans mean for the London Studios (TLS), which would require significant investment to replicate within our proposed South Bank redevelopment,” wrote Crozier. “Looking ahead, we believe that this investment would not be core to the strategic priorities of the ITV Studios business and so we’re proposing to close TLS and use studio capacity in the external market to meet our future business needs.”
An ITV spokesperson said the move was designed to create a “purpose-built HQ on our existing South Bank site, bringing together all of our London-based staff in one location for the first time”.
However, the union Bectu questioned whether the decision was driven by the possibility of a sale of the company. The fall in the value of sterling in recent months is thought to have made ITV, which also operates a large production business, a more attractive prospect for overseas bidders.
The London Studios makes programmes for all the UK’s main broadcasters, including Have I Got News for You and The Graham Norton Show on the BBC, and Channel 4’s Sex Box. It also hosts ITV’s daytime programming – Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women – but these will continue to be filmed in the redeveloped HQ.
The site has a long history stretching back to its original incarnation as The South Bank Television Centre, producing sitcoms such as On the Buses and Father Ted, as well as Blind Date.
Bectu said the plans did not make sense and were a “betrayal” of staff already reeling from 120 redundancies announced late last year.
“Even in the short term the proposal has no logic,” said Bectu’s head, Gerry Morrissey. “Why announce the studios’ closure when planning permission has yet to be sought and when the redevelopment will not begin until 2018 at the earliest?
“We’ll be asking the questions which need to be asked to shine a light on the plans and to defend the interests of our members. We’d also like to know whether the proposal to close the London Studios is motivated more by the prospect of a possible sale of the company than by sound industrial planning.”
The tower block in which the studio is housed was built in the 1970s for London Weekend Television, with ITV securing the freehold on the site in 2003 for £56m.
In December the Wembley studio where the ITV shows The X Factor and Pop Idol were shot was closed ahead of a planned demolition.
