Corporation may wait until 2014 to sell west London site following property downturn and buildings' listed status
The BBC may delay selling off Television Centre in west London until around 2014 and may keep some presence in the building.
A review is taking place about the future of Television Centre in Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, parts of which were listed last year by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, including the so-called 'concrete doughnut' at the heart of the complex.
The property downturn and the listing have affected plans to sell the site. Executives have been considering selling parts of the complex, rather than the whole site, due to the current property downturn.
The BBC is looking to make as much money as possible from the disposal of its properties, following a lower-than-expected licence fee settlement from the government.
One senior BBC executive recently told MediaGuardian.co.uk: 'With Television Centre we'll wait until the price is right, it's inevitable.
'TVC is the spiritual home of the BBC and we'll make sure we do the right thing – whether we stay in it partially is still to be decided.'
The review, which will cover all options, is being led by Keith Beale, who has been overseeing the BBC's new home in Salford and previously worked on the redevelopment of Broadcasting House.
Television Centre, the 1960s complex on Wood Lane that has come to personify the BBC, has been the home of some of the BBC's biggest programmes, including Blue Peter and Newsnight.
BBC staff are due to vacate the site in 2012, moving to other sites including the refurbished Broadcasting House and a major new development in Salford.
Last summer the DCMS ruled that the central ring – or concrete doughnut – and Studio One of BBC Television Centre, designed by Graham Dawbarn of Norman & Dawbarn, were both worthy of listing.
While other studios in the building, as well as the scenery block and canteen, did not meet the level of architectural or historic interest needed for listing, they will nevertheless gain gradeII status because of their 'structural attachment' to the more notable parts of Television Centre.
It is thought that the listing may make the site less appealing to developers, although the BBC is likely to argue it is a unique selling point.
In 2007 the BBC announced it was selling TVC – parts of which are becoming dilapidated and too expensive to refurbish.
Due to asbestos, parts of the complex, or the whole building, are likely to have to be knocked down within the next few years.
Instead the BBC is moving news staff to the newly renovated Broadcasting House in central London and the children's, sport, and learning departments, much of Radio 5 Live and parts of future media and technology to MediaCityUK in Salford.
News staff will be joined at Broadcasting House by the BBC World Service, which is leaving Bush House in central London.
BBC Worldwide staff have already moved out of the Woodlands building near Television Centre on Wood Lane. This site has been sold to Imperial College for the impressive price of about £20m.
Staff from BBC Worldwide are now housed in the White City complex, just down the road from Television Centre, which includes the recently built Media Centre.
London-based drama and entertainment executives are expected to join them once Television Centre is sold.
A number of other BBC buildings have been or are due to be sold off, radically slimming the corporation's property portfolio.
Television Centre is part of a 23-acre site that Hammersmith & Fulham council and the London mayor want to develop as a "cultural quarter".
The BBC's property dealings came under the microscope last week after the outgoing Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson, criticised the BBC for the amount spent on the refurbishment of Broadcasting House.
It is believed a National Audit Office report on the project, due to be published next month, will be critical of the first phase of redevelopment, which included a falling out with architect Sir Richard MacCormac and additional costs due to extra work on nearby Western House and unforeseen problems due to underground tunnels.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "The BBC intends to vacate TV Centre and is currently working on a detailed exit strategy which takes into account the moves of Children's, Sport and 5 Live to Salford in 2011 and News to Broadcasting House in central London in 2012."
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