“We’ve messed up and we apologise to licence fee payers,” said BBC director of strategy James Purnell.
A £98m Digital Media Initiative (DMI) production system was halted last October because it did not work. The DMI was intended to change the way BBC staff shared and used digital material and was to be an integral part of the BBC’s move from London to Salford.
A contract was awarded to Siemens in 2008 when the project was launched, but then taken over by the BBC who continued it in house until its cancellation last Autumn, having spent over £98 million in this two year period.
“Ambitious technology projects like this always carry a risk of failure,” BBC director general Lord Hall said of the much derided project.
“It does not mean we should not attempt them but we have a responsibility to keep them under greater control.”
Err, quite.
The BBC’s chief technology officer, John Linwood, has been suspended while the Corporatoin looks into exactly what went so terribly wrong.
Photo: Getty.
