Manchester based Nine Lives Media, makers of Panorama, Dispatches and a documentary entitled Holiday Love Rats, has won the right to produce the long running BBC religious series Songs of Praise.
Nine Lives were the successful bidder alongside Avanti Media, a Welsh company that has produced several Songs of Praise episodes set in Wales.
Songs of Praise has been made in house by the BBC since 1961 but the corporation was forced to put it out under a new competitive tendering process.
The decision has raised a few eyebrows with fears that it being outsourced will see religious programmers move further down the pecking order, while The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, said: “I wish the new production companies well in their endeavours. But I do fear that there will be a loss in the BBC of specialist expertise in broadcast worship, which has been a core element of its public service remit.”
Nine Lives, based in Manchester’s Spinningfields, said on twitter that they are delighted that Avanti, in partnership with Nine Lives Media, has been trusted to produce the BBC’s religious series Songs of Praise.
