The BBC was "far too complacent" in its handling of a failed IT project that cost license fee payers £98.4 million. The Digital Media Initiative was intended to move the BBC away from using and storing video tape, though after five years in development it bore almost zero results and has been deemed "a complete failure" by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Tony HallTony Hall, director general of the BBC

Chairman Margaret Hodge said the BBC needed to "overhaul" its approach to such projects to "safeguard licence fee payers money". 

The BBC originally approved DMI in 2006 and were supposed to produce new editing tools, an online archive of the BBC's programmes and a new database. Technology giant Siemens was hired to develop the project in 2008, with an expected start date the following year.

However, after a series of delays, the project floundered, leading incoming director general Tony Hall to admit it had "wasted a huge amount of licence fee payers' money."

The BBC's technology chief John Linwood was sacked in July 2013 over the project's demise.

"When my committee examined the DMI's progress in February 2011, the BBC told us that the DMI was... absolutely essential... and that a lot of the BBC's future was tied up in the successful delivery of the DMI," said Ms Hodge.

"The BBC also told us that it was using the DMI to make many programmes and was on track to complete the system in 2011 with no further delays.

"This turned out not to be the case. In reality the BBC only ever used the DMI to make one programme, called Bang Goes the Theory.

"The BBC was far too complacent about the high risks involved in taking it in-house. No single individual had overall responsibility or accountability for delivering the DMI and achieving the benefits, or took ownership of problems when they arose."

A BBC spokesman said: "Tony Hall was right to scrap the DMI project when he took over as director general last year. As we said at the time, the BBC didn't get DMI right and we apologised to licence fee payers"

Overall, the BBC spent £46.7 million on contractors, £37.2 million on IT, £24.9 million on Siemens costs, £8.4 million on consultancy, £6.4 million on BBC staff, and £2.3 million on various other processes.

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