Our development priorities are updated for every commissioning round (last updated July 2009). We include information on the commissioning team and process.

Current Affairs & Investigations now commissions all video content on all platforms including bbc.co.uk, mobiles and interactive 'red button' services as well as for television.

Background

Current Affairs aims to open viewers' eyes to what's going on in the world.

We want to broaden the range of subjects Current Affairs can cover and think afresh about how they can be made into engaging programmes - paying particular attention to distinctiveness and quality. We want to cover previously uncharted territories in novel ways as well as looking at the everyday issues of contemporary British life.

Development Priorities July 2009 - October 2009

Full details of our specific Development Priorities are available here.

• Panorama 30's and some limited opportunities for 60's

• Serious Current Affairs to play at 2100, 60's
• This World 60's to play at various times

• Single 60's in territories relevant to the target audience

• Any shape to play at 2100

Multiplatform

• Journalism Tools
• Civic Data Projects
• 360 Format Innovation with BBC Three

What's been working well?

Panorama specials on BBC ONE have enjoyed some notable success in the last year. Primark, On The Rack, for example, achieved 17% share overall. This demonstrates that looking at the consequences of globalisation, and bringing those issues home to British audiences can work really well. The programme achieved an AI of 84. Other success like Shannon: The Mother of all Lies achieved 24% overall and an AI of 81 and both programmes demonstrate a good indication of how Panorama attracts a very large percentage of ethnically diverse viewers.

Outside the Panorama strand on BBC1, the 2235 slot has proved a strong place for solid current affairs investigations, but with a twist. Catching Britain's Biggest Thieves achieved a 17% share and 2.2 million viewers.

Recently on BBC2, The Trouble with Working Women attracted 1.1 million viewers and an AI of 78, demonstrating that difficult social issues in current affairs can work, and that there is clear value in having a dynamic team of on-screen talent to bring the issues to life and explore them thoroughly. Property Watch was another unusual shape for current affairs, but it worked well stripped over a week, averaging 1.5 million viewers and 7% share. The genre will continue to seek new and novel forms and territories, as well as looking at those areas of British life which are better canvassed.

On BBC THREE, Current Affairs remains among the highest rating factual genres of all. Can I get Legally High with George Lamb brought a new face to the channel, attracted 435,000 viewers on its first showing, was strongly younger-skewing, and generated a great deal of talk and buzz around the channel.

1959: A Panorama Guide on BBC4 was a great example of making the most of the archive. It showed us just how far we have come as a nation, and received a very respectable 344,000 viewers.

The Audience

The audience for BBC Current Affairs and Investigations is diverse and quite varied across the channels. On BBC ONE Panorama is the flagship programme and tends towards broad, family audiences. Current Affairs on The One Show tends to attract an older audience profile and on BBC2, because the range of Current Affairs programmes is wider, so are the audiences, with some titles working well with older audiences and some with the younger end of the BBC2 audience spectrum.

Current Affairs on BBC THREE can feel very different to the rest of the Current Affairs output. On BBC3 we are tightly aligned to the interests, cares and concerns of the Channel's main audience - 16-34 year olds. Therefore, the subjects tend to cluster more around personal issues - body image, troubled teens, changing lives - than they might around the more collective subjects like Westminster and other national institutions. We do however, cover these institutions in detail for BBC FOUR, usually taking a wry look behind the scenes.

We hope to continue expanding the circle for Current Affairs, looking both at core subjects and seeking a wider sense of what Current Affairs means for different groups of people. With a wide range of subjects we hope to attract a broad range of people to Current Affairs and Investigations and in doing so, best serve the interests of as many people as possible.

Strand Requirements:

Tariffs

Please read the full details regarding factual genre tariffs for independents

Your Feedback

Your feedback about these development priorities is welcome here