Forecast to deliver cost savings to the BBC of around £18 million, DMI was contracted out to the technology services provider Siemens with consulting by Deloitte.
A core part of the system was formed by using Cinegy, a production suite originally developed prior to the DMI project by the BBC and selected by Siemens in 2008.
[10][11] In 2012, it was reported that BBC staff who worked on a number of projects including DMI had suffered from severe stress and had been treated at The Priory.
Requested tapes were reportedly transported around London by taxi and via the Tube, and video transfer work was carried out by external production companies.
"[17] On 24 January 2014, the BBC confirmed that the contract of former technology chief John Linwood had been terminated the previous July due to the failure of the Digital Media Initiative.
[18] On 10 April 2014, the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts presented the "BBC Digital Media Initiative, Fifty-second Report of Session 2013–14" in which it defines the project as a "complete failure" [19]