“We are not interested in gaming the figures,” BBC DG Tim Davie repeated several times in front of a Scottish parliamentary committee this morning amid the row over The Traitors and local talent.
Davie was pushed on major concerns over the lack of Scottish people working on the hit series, leading to accusations that the BBC is playing fast and loose with the rules that govern what qualifies as an out-of-London show, which are governed by regulator Ofcom. Traitors producer Studio Lambert technically has a “substantive base” in Scotland and therefore qualifies, but this has been questioned of late by figures from the local sector.
Giving evidence to the Scottish Culture Committee, Davie insisted on numerous occasions that he wants to go beyond hitting Ofcom criteria and make more local shows in Scotland.
“Our intent is absolutely to have local productions,” said Davie. “This is audited against the Ofcom criteria. If you have a [substantive] base, you’re in. From a BBC perspective that is not enough longer term and that is not our long term game. We are not interested in gaming the figures. I couldn’t be less interested.”
He added that he is “interested in the facts, how much production, how many jobs and what’s going on in Scotland.”
Davie’s claim over “gaming the figures” may raise eyebrows given Deadline’s exclusive report that found the BBC and Ofcom had been forced to correct the record over how many Scots worked on Season 1 of The Traitors. That Ofcom record initially listed The Traitors Season 1 as having achieved Ofcom’s criteria of at least 50% of below-the-line talent being based in Scotland, but this was found upon a probe to be incorrect, although regardless that series would have qualified as out-of-London.
Davie stressed a need to support local talent but said he won’t “disincentivize” producers from outside Scotland “bringing in teams to shoot something,” as long as they “want to build a Scottish base” in the future. Given that it’s shot in a Scottish castle, he pointed out that The Traitors is a huge draw for Scottish tourism and “all those things should be celebrated.”
Davie, who masterminded a £700M ($862M) ‘Across the UK’ plan several years back to move jobs and shows out of London, said he “worries about the depth of the sector around the UK at the moment.” He revealed that a recent BBC apprenticeship program seeking 290 apprentices, of which around 70 would be in Scotland, landed a whopping 40,000 applicants.
“My worry is how many of those will get jobs in the sector,” he said. “We are seeing high numbers of unemployment outside London, in freelancers. It therefore becomes utterly critical that the BBC is invested in and I will get back to banging the drum for funding the BBC.”