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BBC Director-General pledges South West will be a world leader
in natural history for generations to come
09 October 2009
Today, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson has announced the
first-ever BBC city partnership as part of a new drive to work with
local agencies to boost the regional creative economies across the
UK.
The BBC has signed a three year Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with a number of key Bristol agencies and organisations to
help ensure Bristol and the South West remains at the forefront of
digital media production.
Today's agreement commits the BBC to partner and work with local
agencies in areas such as boosting local TV production and
film-making, tackling the digital divide, digital skills and media
literacy and collaborating on digital and connectivity
projects.
The Partnership includes Bristol City Council, South West
England's Regional Development Agency, South West Screen - and an
alliance of creative industries, community organisations and
academic institutions in the city including Bristol Media, the
University of Bristol, UWE and Futurelab.
Mark Thompson, who visited the region today, said the agreement
is the first of what could be many partnerships with cities across
the UK
He also pledged that the South West could be a world leader in
natural history programming for decades to come. The forthcoming
'Life' series, which starts on BBC One next week, showed that the
'creative brilliance of programme makers in the region goes from
strength to strength'.
Initiatives announced today include:
- A new drive in local schools and colleges to boost media and
digital production skills and find the Sir David Attenboroughs of
the future.
- A 'school for DJs' with the BBC to open up its studios and
local presenters to act as mentors for local young people with a
flair for presenting or producing programmes
- A project specifically focussed on harder to reach communities
offering media and digital training to 18 to 25-year-olds keen to
pursue a career in media.
- A new micro budget feature film initiative 'iFeatures' to boost
local film-making. Developed by South West Screen and backed by
Bristol City Council and BBC Films, iFeatures will see three
full-length feature films developed, shot and premiered in Bristol
during 2010 and 2011.
The Director-General said a key part of the BBC's recently
announced Strategy Review will be to look at how the BBC can do
even more to use its stable investment through the licence fee to
support 'creative clusters' across the UK.
He added:
"This first city partnership with Bristol will raise the bar on
our ambition to spread the economic benefits of the licence fee
outside of the BBC and out of London.
"We can do even more to unlock the creative talents and boost
the creative economies across the country. Today's first-ever city
partnership reflects our long-term commitment to working with
others to strengthen digital skills, economy and expertise across
the UK"
The agreement, which is the BBC's first city partnership, has
been developed over the past year and underlines the key importance
of the BBC's location within the city.
It builds upon the City's undisputed reputation for creation of
world-class content, notably from the award winning BBC Natural
History Unit, and particularly in factual programming, wildlife
content and animation.
Pioneering initiatives such as The Pervasive Media Studio, the
Watershed and Knowle West Media Centre are also becoming widely
known for their work at the cutting edge of digital media and
community inclusion.
The partners intend that working together more closely and
sharing expertise, resources and ambitions will bring cultural and
economic benefits to the people of Bristol, the city and the South
West region.
At a launch of the partnership agreement, Leader of Bristol City
Council, Barbara Janke said:
"This partnership represents an opportunity to utilise the BBC's
presence in the City to help stimulate creative, technological and
economic growth in the creative industries and in our
communities".
Jane Henderson, Chief Executive of the South West RDA added:
"The South West's thriving media industry owes much of its
success to the presence of the BBC. This agreement will ensure the
Corporation continues to support the new generation of media
content and services - developing technical and creative skills and
safeguarding Bristol's position as a global centre for digital
innovation and hub for the region's creative economy."
South West Screen's Chief Executive, Caroline Norbury, said: "We
are proud to be part of this historic agreement. Bristol and the
South West are known for the high quality of our drama output and
creative talent when it comes to TV shows like Mistresses, Being
Human and Skins. iFeatures is an exciting opportunity for the
region to make the leap to feature film, where we can celebrate our
locations, stories and talent and get to see Bristol's name up in
lights
Ends
Notes to Editors
The Memorandum of Understanding between the BBC and the named
agencies is referred to as the Bristol BBC Anchor Collaboration.
The MOU is published in full online at www.bristol-bbc-anchor.org and
on the BBC Press Office website at www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice.
Contact Details
Name Sue Amiel
Tel 0117 944 1415
Email samiel@spiritpublicrelations.co.uk