Juniper TV to produce BBC's 'This Week'

Juniper TV will start producing the BBC's political show This Week from next autumn, it has been announced.

The new three-year production contract will see Andrew Neil continue to present the BBC One show on Thursdays. Michael Portillo and Diane Abbott will also remain as co-hosts.

Coming into effect from September 2010, Juniper's Samir Shah will act as executive editor for This Week and Vicky Flind will come in as editor.

"We are very much looking forward to working with Samir and his team at Juniper," said BBC head of political programmes Sue Inglish.

"We are incredibly proud of the success of This Week and confident that we can continue to develop the programme's creativity over the contract period."

First announced in February, the move is part of a BBC strategy to reduce its reliance on London-based in-house production. The corporation wants 50% of its network TV content to come from outside the capital by 2016.

After reviewing a variety of tenders from a closed bid list, the corporation opted for Juniper TV to take on the show as it already produces two regional editions of the Politics Show.

This Week regularly attracts around one million viewers for its mix of entertainment and politics in a light-hearted package. The BBC's in-house team will continue to oversee the show until July 2010.