Cash-strapped BBC flog EastEnders set to raise £70million as fans fears soap will be ‘run into the ground’
The moves comes after the soap got a brand new £87 million set in 2022.
THE BBC has flogged the EastEnders set in a bid to raise £70 million – but fans fear the show is being “run into the ground”.
The soap is filmed at Elstree Studios, but the BBC launched a plan to sell the site for £70 million in 2022.
The move was made after the government froze the licence fee for two years in 2022 and set a strict limit for increases from April 2024.
It meant the BBC has had to cut costs across its portfolio in a bid to save £500 million.
Now it has been confirmed that the Elstree studio complex has been sold to Axa, a French insurance company, according to The Financial Times.
The business‘s investment arm – Axa Investment Managers – will buy the 16-acre plot and then the BBC will take out a 25-year leaseback of the facilities.
Axa IM’s global co-head of real estate John O’Driscoll said: “This is possibly the most established studio location in the UK. We like the idea of something that works, but also something that can be improved.”
The deal means the soap can continue filming there uninterrupted despite the sale.
The BBC bought its studio at Elstree in 1984, a year before EastEnders first aired.
The soap got a brand new set back in 2022, which had cost £87 million, and The Sun Online revealed in March last year that there were plans in place for a new backlot stage with a host of new filming locations.
However, the news that the studios were being sold left some soap fans angry, with one writing on social media: “Seems an odd move when they’ve spent loads on a new EastEnders set.
“Such a shame the government are determined to run the BBC into the ground.”
Another added: “Can I ask a question: after the 25 years lease, what would happen to the show if AXA decides not to renew lease with BBC?”
A third tweeted: “Usually the death throes of a once buoyant firm the old sale and leaseback malarkey…..”
Meanwhile a fourth wrote: “This is the latest stage of the BBC’s ‘Death by 1,000 cuts’ …”
EastEnders airs on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.
