The BBC has had to ask staff members to become the studio audience on a number of its shows after licensing difficulties were identified by a London local authority.
The BBC first hit licensing problems last month when they staged a live recording of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the concourse of their Television Centre building in West London. Officers from Hammersmith and Fulham Council, the local authority which administrates the area where Television Centre is located, pointed out that following those previously reported changes in UK licensing laws that came into effect last year, the BBC now needed a licence to stage events of this kind if members of the public were in the audience.
That incident led to a review of all programmes recorded at the TV studio complex and this week the Council identified a number of shows that, because they involve 'live performance', will require a licence if members of the public are to form the audience. Music shows like Top Of The Pops and shows that feature live music, like chat show Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, are all affected.
The BBC hopes to get temporary licences for most affected shows while applying for a long term studio-wide licence, but there won't be time to do that for some recordings taking place this week. To overcome that problem the Corporation hopes to recruit audiences from its workforce though, in the case of the Jonathan Ross chat show, the live music component may just be dropped for a week, or be filmed separately without an audience.