Promoting education and learning
Formal and informal learning are cornerstones of the BBC Two schedule, which is dominated by factual programmes that deliver education and learning benefits.

We are a real home to a broad range of specialist subjects – including natural history, science and business – and a range of programmes from the Open University.

Our core ambition is to expand our viewers’ horizons, often exposing them to unfamiliar areas of knowledge. Much of our content will be supported with online or interactive television material.

Existing programming strands such as Horizon, Timewatch and Natural World make it their mission to find the best stories and the best ways of telling them. These will be complemented this year by landmark programming such as Galapagos and Caribbean.

We will continue to provide a home for the best in children’s programming, with a wide range of output for the non-digital audience via the CBBC and CBeebies brands across multiple genres – from news to drama to magazine programmes. More formally, we will broadcast school programmes on weekday mornings.

Specifically this year:

• BBC Two will feature a history series, The Secret Road to Nuremburg.

Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
BBC Two has a strong commitment to the arts, music, drama, comedy and film. We strive for creative excellence and aim to build on our track record in art and innovative originated comedy and drama, and to provide a home for the passions and interests of the nation.

The Culture Show will once more deliver cultural and arts journalism in peak time, complementing our standing commitment to covering and presenting arts throughout the year through our regular strands Arena and Newsnight Review.

We will continue to provide audiences with diverse coverage of, and commentary on, musical performance, both contemporary and classical. This will include the coverage of the BBC Proms, other performances and large-scale public participation events.

Some BBC Four output will be given a terrestrial showing on BBC Two and we will continue to work to develop this close relationship, including showcasing choice selections from the BBC Four schedule in the ‘Four on Two’ zone.

We will also work with BBC Three, to bring its original comedy to wider audiences.

Specifically this year:

• Arts programming will include The Power of Art presented by Simon Schama, while in music BBC Two will continue its coverage of the major composers with In Search of Tchaikovsky.
• BBC Two will launch new comedy from Steve Coogan and will feature a drama adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty.

Sustaining citizenship and civil society
BBC Two delivers a mix of news analysis, current affairs series and singles, and factual programming, covering international, national and regional issues and perspectives with impartiality, fairness and integrity.

Our coverage of Westminster and the national parliaments and assembly, party conferences and party political broadcasts promotes citizenship and gives a major stage for political debate. It is our aim to offer greater political coverage and to explore challenging subject matter in more depth than other mainstream channels.

Newsnight remains our flagship current affairs programme, bringing the most significant interviews to its audiences. We regularly extend the programme beyond its standard slot to go deeper into the most important issues of the day.

Specifically this year:

• BBC Two will contribute to the BBC’s Climate Change season with programmes including If the Oil Runs Out.
• Documentary output will include Parole Board following the work and lives of parole officers.

Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
We recognise the diversity of our audiences and work to deliver opportunities for communities to come together, as well as serving distinct, niche needs.

We cover many of the UK’s big sporting events and will continue to broadcast those with which we have become synonymous and which bring communities of sporting interest together.

We will continue to cater for the aspirations and passions of our viewers across a range of leisure pursuits, such as motoring (Top Gear), gardening (Gardeners’ World) and football (Match of the Day 2).

We are committed to giving local stories and heritage exposure across the channel. We will broadcast performances from around the UK, including cultural events and traditions that define the nations and regions, such as the Eisteddfod.

We provide a platform to a range of opt-out programmes designed to meet the particular needs and interests of audiences in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, exploring local issues and reflecting the diverse nature of those nations back to them.

Specifically this year:

• Restoration Village will expand the Restoration concept from single buildings to villages around the UK.
• Springwatch will return, exploring animal habitats across the UK.

Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world
It is BBC Two’s ambition to capitalise on its reputation for first-class international coverage and to continue to bring major stories from around the world to the heart of the schedule.

Our current affairs and news analysis output will continue to sustain a distinct international emphasis. We recognise the importance of explaining the increasing interconnectedness of international affairs and will bring a special focus in the year ahead to stories like climate change, where interdependence is becoming more and more obvious.

Our music and arts coverage will also sustain our commitment to bringing the best in the world to our UK viewers.

Specifically this year:

• BBC Two will sustain its core coverage of international affairs through This World, and further programmes will explore new approaches and treatments in bringing an international perspective to a wide audience.
• There will also be a major documentary series on contemporary China, a series on the extremities of human life as lived along the Equator, and special programming to mark the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

Building digital Britain
BBC Two links its linear programming to interactive content, particularly in factual genres, letting audiences explore their own interests to a depth that is self-determined by the user.

We also provide bespoke programme-related websites for much of our television output.

This year:

• As part of a trial, BBC Two will experiment with an upgraded website for broadband users.

• Maintain the highest possible reach to the channel by maximising the impact of genres such as comedy, drama, sport and contemporary features.
• Continue to strengthen the range of popular factual that appeals to younger audiences, for example with factual formats in subject areas such as business (such as The Apprentice).
• Consolidate BBC Two’s comedy offering with returning titles such as QI, Kath and Kim and Extras, and also look for new talent and programmes.
• Explore how broadband can deepen BBC Two’s relationship with audiences by experimenting with an upgraded version of the website for broadband users.

• To ensure that a minimum of 25% of qualifying hours are provided by independent producers.
• 70% of hours, and 80% of hours in peak, to be originations (first shows and repeats).

• To provide, across BBC One and BBC Two combined, a minimum of 365 hours of network current affairs programming, of which at least 105 hours are in peak time.
• A minimum of 6,580 hours of regional programming across the range of genres, including regional news programmes for BBC One.
• At least 95% of regional programmes to be made in the relevant area [BBC One and BBC Two commitment].
• 1,030 hours of regional programmes in peak time, plus a further 355 hours at times adjacent to peak time (i.e. the hour either side of peak time) excluding news on BBC One [BBC One and BBC Two commitment].

• To spend at least 30% of relevant programme production budgets, representing 25% of hours of productions by volume, outside the M25.
• To maintain the current broad range of programmes produced outside the M25, and broad range of different production centres used across the UK.