Peter Salmon has hailed BBC North’s “fantastic” digital credentials and believes it can play a key part in the creation of a new BBC3 – although doubts remain about whether the channel will ever move to Salford.

Peter Salmon

Speaking ahead of the Nations & Regions Conference, the BBC England director said the corporation has a young, digitally savvy workforce at MediaCityUK and that its Sport department has shown how to embed Future Media values at its heart.

Acknowledging that there are “hoops to go through” and that the future shape of BBC3 had not been determined, Salmon said: “We need to make sure Salford is the first port of call for the people relaunching BBC3.

They will ask, ‘Who is going to build this stuff for us? Who has the digital know-how?’ My guess is they’ll come to Salford. We could deliver that. We have the capability.”

The commitment to move BBC3 to Salford by 2016 was made during Mark Thompson’s tenure as director general. That move is now under review, given the plans to relaunch the channel as an online-only proposition.

Salmon said that whatever the outcome, it is important for Salford to continue to grow. “We have to be pragmatic,” he said. “The BBC is changing shape, there’s My BBC and other services it might provide, and that’s what we need a slice of.”

Around 250 BBC roles will move to Salford next year, split between the Future Media division and Children in Need.

Salmon was made BBC director of England in May and has major plans for the other two main hubs outside of London: Birmingham and Bristol.

The former will be reinvented as a skills centre and the BBC Academy will debut there in autumn 2015. It will also house the corporation’s HR functions and be its centre for recruitment. “Staff felt the BBC had lost its way in the region – but we have a great story to tell in Birmingham now,” Salmon said. “We are going to renew our vows around training.

It has been one of the sacred duties of the BBC and we need to work out how we do it in an era of a freelance, mobile, digital workforce.”

He said Joe Godwin would be the boss of BBC Birmingham as well as the Academy, and branded him “one of the best, most charismatic leaders in the BBC”.

Salmon added: “We’re going to be honest about what it takes to get into our industry, and what it takes to get on in our industry – and that will be masterminded by Joe from Birmingham.”

Salmon said his new role had allowed him to personally provide the type of leadership that the city had lacked in recent years.

“If you want to co-ordinate careers, make technology investments, change the reception, or face off against partners around the city, you need leadership. Tony [Hall] has asked me to do that.”

Next year, Bristol is European Green Capital and the BBC has major plans to contribute and mark the event through its raft of factual programming made in the city. “We’re also working with the city council on skills training and on working with disadvantaged communities. My team has been doing that in the north of England, and now we’re doing that in Bristol.”

More generally, Salmon says the BBC is “well on the way” to hitting its 2016 quota target of delivering more than 50% of content from outside London.

But he added: “I’m not a quotas man. They can be a ball and chain as well as a support. Personally, if we missed it by a touch but the slate had real quality and potential, I’d be just as happy. I don’t want to do it by box ticking or by ordering shows that could be made anywhere.”

He said authenticity was hugely important and that he was focused on how the out-of-London content looks, sounds and feels.

He is pleased with how BBC drama has led that charge and cited Happy Valley, The Driver and In The Club among others.

“The three genres that move perception most are comedy, drama and entertainment, and to make a shift [in attitudes outside of London] you need hits in all three. We’re well on the road in drama, we’re getting there in comedy and we have a way to go in entertainment,” he said.

“I’d do anything to find the next Royle Family. The holy grail would be to find a comedy from the north of England that resonates as much as Last Tango In Halifax.”

Salmon said the influence of the BBC in areas outside of London could be huge, and that it could benefit both the country and grass roots support for the BBC. “The big prize is to be close to licence fee payers. It sounds a bit grandiose but we can be part of their lives by being close to where they live.”

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