The BBC is to completely scrap its production quota model, director general Tony Hall has told attendees at the Future of the Licence Fee seminar at City University, London. Previously, the BBC had mandated that half of all its output must be created in-house, with a further 25% open to tender for both in-house and external companies and only the remaining 25% of content ringfenced for outside production.

The move will not only have a seismic impact on the BBC itself, currently under pressure to be more cost effective and offer greater value for money across its license-fee funded operations, but also on the independent production sector which is now free to pitch for an additional £400m in BBC commissions.

The benefits of this new freedom, however, must be balanced by the fact that the BBC itself will also be seeking to produce content for other broadcasters worldwide, placing it in direct competition with those same indies.

While many have expected the BBC to move in this direction, the speed and scope of the change is still impressive and decisive.

The move certainly hasn’t come as much of a surprise. Just last month, former BBC chief creative officer Pat Young called the quota system “irretrievably broken” and called for its abolition so that BBC production could be free to compete in the wider TV landscape.

While many have expected the BBC to move in this direction, the speed and scope of the change is still impressive and decisive.

Britain is justifiably proud and protective of the BBC, but its working methods have been slow to change and adapt to the rapidly evolving TV landscape.  This is true not only for the independent companies that were kept needlessly at bay by the quota, but also the stifling effect it had on the BBC’s own productions, which could only be sold to one buyer: itself. When so many other media companies are combining and converging, creating flexible and competitive vertical pipelines through which content can be delivered to commercial partners around the world, and at every stage of the process, the BBC may have just evolved from a lumbering dinosaur to a more agile creature altogether.

The BBC may have just evolved from a lumbering dinosaur to a more agile creature altogether.

There will be perils in this approach, of course, and wariness of commerciality tainting the corporation’s output is never far from the thoughts of both fans and critics of the BBC’s output. Yet this is one of the most scrutinised and debated media companies in the world, and K7 is confident that it will navigate these uncharted waters with due care. For now, we should all be celebrating a gesture that will send benefits rippling across the UK industry and beyond.