The BBC is setting up an animation studio and looking at sites outside London for the new unit including Bristol, home of Wallace & Gromit producer Aardman.
Comedy animation aimed at adult viewers and children's cartoons are both on the agenda for the new unit. The BBC comedy and children's departments are both backing the venture.
The BBC Vision Productions creative director, Pat Younge, is overseeing the initiative and expects to appoint a small development team of experienced animators and writers early in 2011. They will form the core of a new unit, which will grow as and when it wins commissions.
Younge said a feasibility study to find the best location for the animation unit was nearing completion, but it would be based outside London.
The head of BBC Vision production modernisation, Richard Williams, is conducting the study, and candidates include Bristol, where the presence of Aardman Animations – the independent producer of Wallace & Gromit – ensures a pool of cartoon expertise, the north west, Cardiff and other centres where there was a strong base, or colleges teaching students.
The aim is to service all BBC networks, including CBeebies, CBBC, BBC1 and BBC3, which enjoyed success with Mongrels. In-house BBC comedy producers provided CBBC with the hit Big Babies, a mixture of puppetry and computer-generated imagery, featuring two "babies" with human heads.
Successful cartoon shows have potential to sell well overseas, redubbed in a range of languages. In the new austerity climate at the BBC it is a genre expected to attract investment from commercial arm BBC Worldwide, which is seeking new programming to sell.
With the cartoons made in-house, the BBC rather than independent producers will keep all rights, including merchandising deals. Broadcasters are increasingly looking to augment traditional licence fee and advertising income from other sources, while the potential to recycle programming online is growing rapidly.
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