Want to be the IT Crowd for the BBC? An £800M contract beckons

Summary

The BBC has published a major tender, Project Petra, seeking a supplier to deliver enterprise end‑user IT and infrastructure for more than 30,000 staff across 200+ locations worldwide. The contract runs from 22 February 2027 to 1 October 2032 with an option to extend for up to three years. The estimated total value is about £793 million (including VAT).

Key Points

Project Petra covers networks, email, collaboration tools, device and user support, servers and application management for the BBC workforce.
Contract term: 22 Feb 2027 – 1 Oct 2032, with a possible three‑year extension; estimated value ~£793m incl. VAT.
The BBC expects much of the contract value to come from transformation and automation work aimed at cutting costs; routine day‑to‑day services are a smaller portion of the total value.
Five or six suppliers will be invited to tender; bids will be evaluated 60% on cost and 40% on quality.
Award is planned around 8 February 2027, so shortlisted suppliers should be ready to move fast.
The tender is nicknamed ‘Project Petra’ after the Blue Peter dog — a bit of cultural colour in an otherwise business‑focused notice.

Content Summary

The BBC wants a single supplier (or lead supplier) to run and transform its everyday IT estate for tens of thousands of users. The brief is broad: everything from email and collaboration platforms to networks, servers and support for user devices — plus an expectation that the supplier will drive automation and consolidation to deliver long‑term savings. Cost will be the dominant evaluation factor, but quality still matters (40%). The tender timeline points to contract mobilisation in early 2027.

Context and Relevance

This comes as the BBC renegotiates its royal charter and faces pressure to demonstrate efficiency while funded largely by the licence fee. For vendors, it’s a sizeable public‑sector opportunity with transformation upside. For the BBC and the public, it signals a push to automate and reduce operating costs across a sprawling estate.

Why should I read this?

If you sell enterprise IT services or follow public‑sector procurement, this is prime hunting ground — big money, large scale and a strong emphasis on cost savings (read: plenty of work for systems integrators who can promise automation). If you’re just curious about where the BBC is investing, it’s a neat snapshot of how a major public broadcaster plans to modernise and tighten its IT ship.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/02/bbc_800m_it_tender/