COMMISSIONING PROCESS

WHAT IS THE COMMISSIONING PROCESS?The commissioning process is the authorisation to produce or create something or “granting certain powers or the authority to carry out a particular task or duty” (1) In terms of media, this refers to the authorisation to produce a film or television content.

The channel chosen is BBC Three, which belongs to media conglomerate, the British Broadcasting Company.

The BBC have a particular commissioning process in which they commission content as “governed by the Code of practice and the Business framework”. As explained on their commissioning section of their website, the BBC say that commissioning is “collaboration between channels and genres” and a programme has to meet and work for both. This implies that the BBC is very selective of the content that they commission as it must meet the ethos and general genres of each channel. For example, the company would not commission a programme proposed for BBC Two that is aimed at a young audience and touches topics such as teenage pregnancy as this is not suitable for the channel and preferred genres of the channel.

HOW ARE IDEAS SUBMITTED?The prime way in which ideas can be submitted is through BBC Pitch, a tool that allows UK television and in-house production teams to submit ideas for the BBC Network Television. This tool is primarily to improve the commissioning process for the BBC and was created in order to make BBC commissioners consider ideas more efficiently.

However, not just anyone can use this method of submitting ideas. Those submitting ideas should be an independent production company who have had either:A BBC commission in the last three yearsA commission for another major UK broadcaster in the last three years.(3)

HOW ELSE ARE IDEAS SUBMITTED?The second way that ideas are submitted is through the number of different services that the BBC offers to the public, in the case that is the public who want to submit ideas (4). This method is not a direct way in which producers can pitch ideas to the BBC as it is expected for the ideas to be from an independent production company. On the website, there is a link to a production company database that allows members of the public to explore the different options for them in the chance that they wish to become a part of an independent production company. This will then allow them to submit ideas for a programme efficiently.

WHEN THE IDEAS ARE PROPOSEDWhen ideas are proposed to the channel, it is first looked at in regards to genre. It is then decided whether it is a “good addition to their mix”, and if so, then the producer(s) may be asked to develop it further. Once the idea is considered ready, it is then sent to the Channel Controller. For the BBC, there are different channel controllers:

Charlotte Moore, Controller, BBC One

Kim Shillinglaw, Controller, BBC Two and Four

Dan McGolpin, Controller, BBC Daytime

Damian Kavanagh, Controller, BBC Three

For our production, we would be looking to impress Damian Kavanagh, who is responsible for the overall direction of BBC Three.

There will then be discussions with the channel and genre that will evolve into creative dialogue and this will be managed by the Genre Commissioning Editor, who in this instance is Elizabeth Kilgarriff. Polly Hill is the controller for drama commissioning (2)

HOW ARE THE FILMS/PROGRAMMES FUNDED?There is an agree license fee that the BBC is to pay for the programme and this is negotiated between the parties. There are two ways in which this can go – the BBC agree to cash-flow the agreed fee according to the stage payments (which are also agreed upon) or the agreed fee will be paid upon delivery.

Pre-agreed stage payments are done with the intention to avoid detailed negotiations between the parties ensuring that they reflect the particular production schedule. On the other hand, consideration is taken into the nature of the of the production to decide the stages, as this changes depending on the type of production that is being produced.

When a staged payment is agreed, the stages are set out like this:

SOURCES

(1) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/commissioning(2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/drama(3) http://

www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/pitch#eligibility-criteria(4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/ideas-from-the-public

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/who-we-are-how-we-commission#decision-processhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/how-we-do-businesshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/kavanagh_damian/