Our development priorities are updated for every commissioning round (last updated Nov 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.
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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 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.
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Development Priorities November 2009 - February 2010
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
- New formats and territories to play any time, any shape
- 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
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What's been working well?
Panorama specials on BBC ONE have enjoyed some notable success in the last year. Britain's Homecare Scandal achieved a 15% share.
Outside the Panorama strand on BBC1, the 2235 slot has proved a strong place for solid current affairs investigations. Jack: A Soldier's Story first aired on BBC3 and achieved high AIs on its repeat on BBC1.
Recently on BBC2, Who's Watching You attracted 1.8 million viewers and an AI of 81, demonstrating that tricky subjects can be made relevant to good sized audiences. Prescott: The Class System and Me attracted 2.2 million viewers and generated a huge amount of press and interest. These differently-shaped takes on social issues work well for the channel and help to modernise Current Affairs. However, we do not want to lose sight of more classical forms. Iran and the West was a first rate, gold-plated piece of Current Affairs, and we are seeking more of these forms.
On BBC THREE, Current Affairs remains among the highest rating factual genres of all. Natalie Cassidy's Diet Secrets continued to develop this new face to the channel, attracted 583,000 viewers on its first showing and was strongly younger-skewing.
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.
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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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