Union blasts plan to close ITV studio

UK media and entertainment union Bectu has attacked UK broadcaster ITV’s decision to close The London Studios, labelling it a “betrayal of staff.”

The London Studios is where much of ITV’s daytime output and entertainment shows, such as Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and The Jonathan Ross Show, plus third-party productions like The Graham Norton Show are made.

ITV’s proposal to close the complex is part of a significant planned redevelopment of the company’s Southbank headquarters, for which planning permission has yet to be sought.

Bectu describes The London Studios as “a jewel in the company’s crown and a favoured location for television production for all the major channels” and “home to substantial technical and production expertise in light entertainment television.”

ITV has started a 90-day consultation over the proposed studio closures. The new headquarters will include dedicated studios for ITV daytime shows including This Morning and Loose Women.

“After giving careful consideration to all London property options, we are planning to build a modern, purpose-built HQ on our existing South Bank site, bringing together all of our London-based staff in one location for the first time,” an ITV spokesman told ITV News.

Gerry Morrissey, head of Bectu, said: “Even in the short term the proposal has no logic. 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.

“It’s clear that the company’s current plans don’t include all of the 1,500-plus staff on the South Bank and in fact exclude staff responsible for some of the company’s core output. Bectu will be looking to persuade the company to re-think its proposals.”

A spokesman for ITV told C21: “The proposed closure is a little over a year away, but we felt that it was important to let those affected by this plan hear about it first hand, and as soon as possible, which is why we spoke to those colleagues as soon as we had made the decision.

“We have a very clear business strategy: to make great content, showcase it on our channels and distribute it internationally, and we have given very careful consideration to what our redevelopment plans mean for The London Studios, which would require very significant investment to replicate within our redevelopment. We are therefore proposing to close the The London Studios business and use studio capacity in the external market, as we currently do for many programmes, to meet our future business needs.”