BBC libraries drop internal market

Greg Dyke has announced that BBC producers will no longer have to pay directly for many library services.

New arrangements, which come into effect immediately, will allow producers and researchers free access to film clips, video recordings, and printed material.

Under the previous system, introduced by ex-Director General John Birt, programme makers were charged for each individual item they borrowed, as part of his Producer Choice internal market.

Each year an average of 400,000 separate requests for material were individually billed to programme-makers, and Dyke expects significant savings on administration.

Payment for these requests will now take the form of a one-off annual cash transfer from programme departments, instead of thousands of individual transactions.

Some library services will still be charged "on the meter", including requests for items that have to be bought from outside sources, and copying of sheet music.

Charges will also be made in cases where producers need the assistance of the specialist research staff employed by the BBC's libraries. However, the BBC is moving many of its library research systems online, and it is likely that a proportion of complex searches will eventually be carried out by programme-makers themselves.

Dyke's move away from the internal market at the BBC has been widely supported both by programme-makers and the union. BECTU led the storm of criticism as Producer Choice spread throughout the BBC in the early 90s, and condemned the now-defunct Library charging system as bureaucratic and unworkable.