Thompson: Get 50% of BBC out of London

Director general Mark Thompson has revealed his ambitious target for half the BBC's programming to be produced outside London by 2016.

Half its programming staff should also be based out of the capital within a decade, he said at the corporation's Television from the Nations and Regions conference in Salford. It is part of efforts to increase diversity and links to other regions.

However, Thompson rejected suggestions an entire network should be moved from London. He said: "If we were to move one network, people would be campaigning to move another."

The director general also argued the BBC's corner against proposals to give part of its licence fee money to other broadcasters or projects.

One strength of the current arrangement, he told the conference, was the direct link in viewers' minds between the fee and the BBC.