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

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

Background

BBC Docs should engage with the here and now, and challenge the audience to broaden their horizons or see their world from different perspectives.

We're particularly interested in how we might make more traditional docs subjects modern and relevant, rather than worthy or predictable.

On the whole we're quite flexible with slots and shapes, so please be inventive and don't self-censor too much - the best ideas will find the best slots.

Development Priorities July 2009 - October 2009

Full details of our specific Development Priorities are available here.

• High Impact docs at 2100
• Pre-watershed series
• One offs and Mini series at 2235

• Many different shapes and sizes

• Authored docs series
• Singles as part of a season
• Formats and social experiments

• Either 3 or 4 × 60 minute documentary series
• Singles as part of a season

Multiplatform

• Innovation in the documentary form
• Harnessing the Power of Audiences
• Bold Visions from talent and creatives

What's been working well?

Famous, Rich and Homeless, on BBC ONE, showed how formatted docs find entertaining ways to deliver important stories and issues to the national consciousness.

Trouble in Amish Paradise did what BBC TWO can do best, bringing a broad audience to important but accessible documentary.

On BBC THREE, Underage and Pregnant innovated with form by grouping multiple stories around a really important theme for the audience.

On BBC FOUR Fish! A Japanese Obsession delighted a big audience with its bold, unique proposition and entertaining storytelling.

The Audience

Documentaries on BBC ONE have ambition, originality and mainstream appeal. They need to bring households together, so people and subjects that captivate the collective imagination and take them to new places always work well.

BBC TWO specialises in groundbreaking documentaries that can bring a younger audience of 25-44 year olds to the channel. Driven by experiences not theses, at their best, documentaries on TWO provide authentic but extraordinary content that changes the audience's view of the world.

Documentaries on BBC THREE are a real strength in attracting its broad young audience of 16-34 year olds. Though they come with different shapes and approaches, all docs on THREE deliver unconventional, provocative content, often with humour, and always with a genuine sense of purpose.

BBC FOUR is the home of intelligent television, and documentary is a crucial part of the mix. Never afraid to delve into challenging subjects, it does so with a wit and verve that makes clever TV warm and accessible.

Tariffs

Please read the full details regarding factual genre tariffs for independents

Your Feedback

Your feedback about these development priorities is welcome here

• 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.

Page last updated 5 August 2009