The Stage

CBeebies to relocate to cheaper studios

Published Friday 9 November 2007 at 12:45 by Matthew Hemley

BBC children’s channel CBeebies is to be moved from the Corporation’s Television Centre next year in a bid to save money and protect programming budgets.

The pre-school channel’s presenting team currently uses studios at the west London centre at a cost of what is understood to be more than £1 million a year to hire from BBC Resources.

From 2008, the presenters will be moved to Teddington Studios, where hire costs are thought to be half that which the BBC currently pays, and the money saved will be put back into making more programmes for the channel.

Its output currently exists of shows such as In the Night Garden and Charlie and Lola.

A BBC spokesman said: “In order to save money, the children’s department is being asked to find more efficient ways of doing things. At the end of the day we have got to deliver savings and by moving the presenting department we are protecting programme budgets.”