This is taken from the Financial Times:

BBC 'time lords' face uncertain future
By Tim Bradshaw, Digital Media Correspondent
Published: May 2 2009 03:00

Kingswood Warren is unlike any research lab in the world. For over 60 years, the BBC's engineers have worked in this gothic mansion in Surrey to develop some of the greatest milestones in broadcasting technology: from FM to DAB radio, colour television to high-definition TV, and Ceefax to bbc.co.uk.

"They are the time lords," says Matthew Postgate, controller of BBC research and innovation. "They regenerate themselves to react to whatever comes next."

As the BBC comes under increasing pressure to justify its use of the licence fee, the role of its research and innovation department is set to become more important. But even at this critical time, the division's future at its 19th century manor house is uncertain.

In an affluent area, with a fast train link to London from nearby Sutton, Kingswood has attracted the attention of property developers. By next year, its researchers and scientists are scheduled to move out to make way for new houses.

BBC Technology, which was founded in 2001 to provide IT products and services to the BBC and other broadcasters, was bought by Siemens in 2004 . Some employees left Kingswood, and for a few years the research unit was allowed to drift without permanent management.

That has begun to change under Erik Huggers, formerly of Microsoft, who was appointed director of future media and technology at the BBC last year. Although the Kingswood site had been sold, Mr Huggers pre-empted a strike by its workers last August by indefinitely postponing the relocation.

And in Matthew Postgate, the former controller of mobile who brought the iPlayer to the iPhone, the research and innovation unit has a permanent controller, adept in translating lab work and geek-speak into more tangible concepts.

Mr Huggers and Mr Postgate are keen to emphasise the value of the BBC's research work to the wider media industry. Last December, as part of its defence of the licence fee, the BBC proposed sharing in-house technology such as the iPlayer with rivals .

"BBC Research & Development will continue to play a key role working closely with the industry in the delivery of the technology behind the BBC's partnership proposals," says Mr Huggers.

"BBC R&D has a proud 60-year heritage of creating technologies that have been shared with other broadcasters and have become industry standard, with examples including Nicam [digital stereo], Teletext and, more recently, DVB-T2 - the standard that will enable HD programmes to be broadcast over Freeview."

But commercial broadcasters are demanding more. Andy Duncan, chief executive of Channel 4, told the Financial Times' Digital Media conference in March that the BBC's proposals were "not sufficient" , disputing the BBC's claim that its technology-sharing was worth £120m a year.

Mr Postgate admits it is hard to put a precise value on Kingswood's research, which can take more than five years before it becomes a working public service.

Work is focused on those areas most likely to yield a high return on investment. Today that includes tapeless production systems and "production magic", such as the 3D graphics used on Match of the Day analysis, or Bamzooki , a children's game show.

Mr Postgate likes to talk about Kingswood as an "early warning system" that scans for future disruptive technologies and tries to harness them for the BBC.

But increasingly, the big technological advances are coming from abroad; Google's YouTube is still many times more popular for online video viewing than the iPlayer.

Mr Postgate argues that without Kingswood Warren, the UK media sector could face greater domination by US technology companies.

"The BBC already has a global relevance," he says. "R&D is a big part of why we have been able to get into a room with those guys on an equal footing, and put forward a view that is not just the BBC's. I think the UK is pretty lucky to have the BBC."