Our development priorities are updated for every commissioning round (last updated November 2008). 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.
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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 treatment, talent, timing and tone.
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Development Priorities November 2008 - March 2009
Full details of our specific Development Priorities are available here.
- Panorama 30's and some limited opportunities for 60's
- Landmarks 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
- Authored Stories
- Harnessing the Power of Audiences
- Innovation in Documentary Craft
- Online Talking Points
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What's been working well?
Panorama on BBC ONE has enjoyed some notable success this year. Notes on a Dirty Island had writer Bill Bryson report on his outrage at the way people treat Britain like a rubbish tip and looked at how we could clean up our act. The programme performed very well, with 4.3 million people tuning in, achieving an 18% share and a very strong AI 0f 83.
Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby on BBC TWO was a huge success, gathering 12% share and very strong AI's of 86. The programme worked best with older audiences, but on the other hand, The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 and The Third Tower achieved similar numbers but with an almost exclusively young audience, demonstrating that there can be a broad range of subjects and audiences for Current Affairs on BBC TWO.
On BBC THREE, Current Affairs is among the highest rating genres of all. Kizzy: Mum at 14 is a really good example of the genre on the channel. While the first outing of Kizzy achieved a respectable 600k viewers, repeats of the title achieved up to 800K viewers with each repeat, defying television gravity in the process. Kizzy generated a huge amount of on-line debate and discussion, meaning there was a new audience for the programme each time that it broadcast. It finally went to BBC1 at 10:35 and garnered another 2.2 million viewers.
The Making of the Iron Lady on BBC4 was another great example of the range of Current Affairs across all television channels. Insightful, intelligent and at times witty and subversive, it was interesting television for interested people.
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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.
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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
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Clive Edwards |
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Max Gadney
Current Affairs, Features, Formats and Specialist Factual on BBC Three, History and Business and Religion |
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Fiona Campbell |
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| Mike Edgar (N Ireland) |
Andrea Miller (Scotland) |
Adrian Davies (Wales) |
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Anne Sullivan |
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As from April 2007, all proposals must now be submitted via our e-Commissioning system.
This enables both in-house and independent producers to track their submissions online.
Proposals will no longer be accepted via email.
Timeline
All proposals are registered on a confidential database and independent suppliers receive an acknowledgement of their proposal within two weeks of receipt.
The relevant Commissioning Editor will either reject or progress proposals within six weeks of receipt (four weeks from acknowledgement.)
Proposals may be provided with funded development, in which case the timetable to commission will be subject to negotiation between the external supplier and the BBC and determined by the development contract.
The final decision will be no later than 20 weeks of receipt of the proposal. A successful proposal will be given approval by the relevant Commissioning Editor.
Projects may be held over in exceptional circumstances but only with the formal agreement of the supplier.
Queries
At any point during this maximum 20 week period, an external supplier may write to the Commissioning Editor asking for a progress report and be guaranteed a response within 10 working days of receipt.
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