BBC Home
Commissioning BBC Homepage » Commissioning BBC Vision Commissioning Who's Who Multiplatform Commissioning Terms Of Business Production Guidelines Programme Delivery One Stop Shop Essential Information In Advance On Delivery Date Final Steps Programme Durations Contacts Credit Guidelines Branding & Logos Contacts Nations & Regions TV Other TV Services Audio & Music Local Radio Future Media Audience Info Contacts Questions
In Advance
Our Publicity Requirements are as important as our physical tape requirements - enabling us to promote the programme effectively.
PDF files to Download
Example Billing Form (29Kb) for Independents
Requires Adobe Acrobat Free Here
BBC Wales Delivery Site
New Compliance Policy
e-Commissioning
Member of the public with ideas can get information here
Writers Room Link
Durations - don't make your programme too long for your slot - check programme and credit durations here
Interactive TV ideas are submitted to the normal genre teams
Publicity Material
This is used by our Press, Publicity and Creative Services teams.
Provides information regarding what the programme is about, who presents it, who wrote it, etc. Examples of material could include a cast list.
This information is needed 6 to 8 weeks in advance of delivery in order to provide the best publicity/promotion for any programme but the earlier information is provided the better - even before pre-production if available.
BBC Scotland commissions that are unable to deliver DVDs should contact the BBC Scotland Press Office
Open University
Publicity Plans for Open University Programmes are co-ordinated by Media Relations staff at the Open University and agreed with BBC Public Relations. Their aim is to generate maximum positive coverage for the programmes and related OU courses and activities. A typical timetable of OU publicity activities for individual productions is here .
Stills
Photographic stills are used to publicise the programme. This process is managed by Picture Publicity for Network programmes, OU Media Relations for Open University programmes and the BBC Scotland Press Office for BBC Scotland programmes. Please contact them to agree format, style, content and quantity of photography in advance.
We need to receive:
Amongst these pictures should be at least two generic set up images which best represent the whole series.
The Photography must be of professional standard and should be of sufficiently different and varying content so as may be used together or separately across a broad spectrum of media without compromising each other.
Photographic stills are normally required 9 weeks in advance but our press/publicity teams should be involved at as early a stage as possible (essential on major series), preferably before filming commences.
Photographs should be fully cleared of copyright and artists' restrictions, including associated moral rights. Where archive or artwork photography is being supplied the images should be cleared for publicity without restriction.
The BBC or the OU may also commission its own photographer subject to agreement with the producer.
Note that screen grabs taken from the master are of very limited use, (news stories, websites), and are not acceptable for newspaper features or magazines.
For OU productions, the cost of commissioning a professional photographer to provide stills will need to be covered by the production budget.
Production Script
Providing Production Scripts, Running Orders, or other documents that could be useful to subtitlers in advance greatly helps the subtitling process.
Please inform Access Services whether an electronic script will be available even if it is not available immediately. When available, please e-mail documents to Access Services (no later than the delivery date and ideally as early as possible).
If there are no electronic scripts available, paper documents provide an acceptable substitute.
Information about the special requirements for the English sub-titling of Gaelic programmes for BBC Craoladh nan Gaidheal is available here .
Programme Material for Trails
Trailing a programme ensures it gets maximum publicity. If your programme is to be promoted, you will be contacted to obtain trail material.
Example of requirements for material would be:
Precise delivery requirements are under review - these could be as early as several months prior to transmission. Note that we like to be involved in this process at as early a stage as possible.
Billings and EPG Information
This provides essential information, for example to:
In-house programme-makers and independents using the P4A system can find full information on our requirements on P4A. Other Independent producers may find the information and example billing here useful.
The dates by which this information must be received varies for different channels:
NB It is essential that the relevant delivery date is met to ensure that your programme is properly advertised to viewers in printed and electronic programme listings. In cases where the final schedule slot has yet to be confirmed, Production can submit billings forms without the TX time filled in.
is normally 22 days before the beginning of the transmission week (though subject to change by BDS, particularly at holiday periods).
Details of Billings Due Dates are available at the (External) BDS website here .
Note the BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
is normally 17 days before the beginning of the transmission week (though subject to change by BDS, particularly at holiday periods).
is the 18th of each month for publication on the 31st of the month for transmission two months later
i.e. February 18th for transmission in April
For information (when, where, how) on submitting this information One Stop Shop
For information (when, where, how) on submitting this information
One Stop Shop
Independents will receive a P4A disc approximately 4 weeks prior to delivery date which contains all the necessary paperwork templates including the billing form. The paperwork should be completed on the disc and returned by your programme's delivery date.
open2.net requirements
www.Open2.net is the OU website for all University Broadcasts on the BBC. It features programme listings, programme summaries and expands on programme content. The web teams working on the programme related sites require certain assets from production teams in order to create and style the site appropriately.
Deliver to: Broadcast Project Co-ordinator, OBU
Deliver to: Open2.net Web Team
Change Text Only Settings
Graphic version of this page