COMMISSIONING GUIDELINES ARTS ROUND, AUTUMN 2016 Proteus round: 2017 2018 – 2 NB: This Arts round does not follow the traditional pattern of Radio 4 commissioning rounds. It is therefore important that you read with care the whole of this document. 1. TIMETABLE 2 2. HOW TO SUBMIT AN ARTS IDEA 3 3. EDITORIAL BRIEFS 6 POETRY AND POETRY FEATURES 8 POPULAR ARTS FEATURE 9 MUSIC FEATURE 12 4. SPECIAL EVENTS AND SEASONS 13 5. CHECKLIST FOR SUBMISSIONS AND SUPPORTING 14 MATERIAL 6. BBC EDITORIAL GUIDELINES & COMPLIANCE 16 7. THE BBC RADIO 4 AUDIENCE 17 1 1. TIMETABLE There is only one delivery deadline for proposals in this round. There is no pre-offers stage. Guidelines published Week commencing 18 July Offers deadline Midday 29 September Shortlist published in Proteus Week commencing 17 October Meetings with shortlisted suppliers 07-18 November Results published in Proteus Week commencing 12 December 2 2. HOW TO SUBMIT AN ARTS IDEA Eligibility: We invite proposals from BBC departments and independent production companies with a proven track record in arts and documentary programme making. Where your offer is journalistic, we expect a track record in the relevant sphere of journalism at producer and executive producer level. All ideas must be entered in the Proteus system by the stated deadline. Enter in: Radio 4 Round 2017 2018 – 2 The following must be entered for each proposal: title - of your proposal, not the slot. commissioning brief number Enter each proposal in one schedule slot only. If we consider it suitable for another slot, we will transfer it. delivery date Linked to anniversary / event dates where relevant. This information will be used when scheduling a commissioned programme. number of episodes duration This is the total allotted airtime, including continuity announcements, for example 14’ and 28’. short synopsis 50 words – the purpose of this synopsis is just to help identify your proposal, not to make a pitch. price per episode Radio 4 has set prices that it expects to pay for programmes, as shown at the top of each commissioning brief. This is entered automatically in the guide price field. If your idea requires a budget significantly above or below the guide price, make this clear in the long synopsis and explain your reasoning. Although ideas submitted below the guide may increase your chance of a commission, the editorial proposition is always paramount in commissioning decisions. producer Include a CV in long synopsis if producer is new to Radio 4. executive producer Include a CV in long synopsis if exec is new to Radio 4. key talent Any intended writer/abridger/performer/presenter etc should be shown in the long synopsis. You do not have to secure talent agreement before submitting an offer but you should let us know the degree to which named talent have expressed an interest in the project or have intellectual ownership of it. long synopsis 500 words for a single feature, 1000 words for a batch or series. Style guide Don’t use the Notes field. Anything in this field will be deleted. Don’t insert a space or dots or asterisks before beginning the title. Don’t put double spaces in the title. Don’t put quotation marks around the title. Don’t start the title with a slot name, e.g. The Wednesday Debate. Do begin titles in Proteus with The or A as appropriate, e.g. A Short History of… If you are preparing proposals offline to paste into Proteus, keep formatting simple: bold, underline and italic only. Proteus will remove other formatting, including bulleted and numbered points, as well as converting your font to the equivalent of Arial size 11. 3 Results When the commissioning editor has read all offers and selected those he thinks worth further consideration, we will let you know through Proteus. Proposals will show as either ‘rejected’ or ‘shortlisted’. Due to the number of proposals, we are unable to give feedback on rejections at this stage, If your offer is shortlisted, this means we want to consider it further and you are invited to make an appointment to discuss it with the commissioning editor. When those discussions have taken place, the commissioning editor and the Controller of Radio 4 will decide what they want to buy. These results will then be released in Proteus. Proteus will display one of five results: rejection, shortlist, pilot, or conditional commission Rejection We will provide brief feedback on our reasons for not commissioning. Shortlist We are seriously interested in the idea but feel more work is needed. The commissioning editor will be in touch to explain what we are looking for. We try to clear proposals from the shortlist quickly and we review it every 3 months or so to see whether we are in a position to move an idea forward or to reject it. Pilot We need to hear a pilot before committing ourselves. You should discuss this with the commissioning editor before doing further work. Conditional commission Acceptance of all ideas is conditional on the issues listed below. Radio 4 is not responsible for any costs incurred prior to the full agreement. There will be important information included in the feedback field in Proteus which will not be communicated through any other means so it is vital that you take time to read this and disseminate it to colleagues where necessary. Price and rights Each conditional commission will be made with a fixed price offer that has been judged as value for money by the Commissioning, Finance and Business Affairs teams. Most will be at the published guide but we reserve the right to propose an alternative price if we believe it appropriate. If our price is accepted by you in writing there will be no need to submit a detailed budget. Contracts will be issued immediately to independent suppliers by Business Affairs. If, however, you wish to challenge the offer made then a detailed budget in Proteus will be requested and scrutinised by us with the aim of reaching agreement. Conditional acceptances may be withdrawn if agreement on price is not reached within a reasonable period. Radio 4 requires an appropriate set of rights dependent on the type of programme. This will vary only in exceptional circumstances. The price quoted on the commissioning brief is based on buying the standard set of rights for that programme. If fewer rights are bought, the price may be reduced. 4 Digital platform use Rights should be cleared for streaming, together with a 30-day “listen again” window and podcast. Independent suppliers are required to clear the rights for podcasts, unless otherwise agreed between the BBC and the independent producer. Schedule and delivery dates Each proposal should include your ideal delivery date, though our conditional acceptance will not necessarily be able to reflect this date. We are unlikely to issue precise transmission dates for programmes not pegged to a particular anniversary or season but will give the calendar quarter in which we intend to place them. If you cannot deliver to meet the given transmission quarter, notify Amanda Benson (Schedule Planning Manager). Precise delivery dates will be confirmed well before the start of each calendar quarter. Editorial A conditional acceptance might have specific editorial conditions attached to it, e.g. that a particular actor is available, and fulfilment of them must be confirmed before the commission is finalised and before you start work. 5 EDITORIAL BRIEFS FOR ARTS FEATURES Commissioning Editor: James Runcie Commissioning Co-ordinator: Georgina Southall Poetry and poetry features Brief Number 47114 Popular Arts features Brief Number 47165 Music features Brief Number 47133 Special Events and Seasons Brief number 47132 The Arts on Radio 4 Artists see the world from a willfully non-conformist angle: angrily, critically, lovingly, sorrowfully, joyfully, wittily, irreverently and unexpectedly: loud and publically, soft and gently, intimately, personally, and, if they are truly original, they will define our flickering humanity in ways that no one has ever thought before. The imagination gives the artist the truest freedom; of thought, language, expression and identity. The artist lives in a world without borders, able to cross countries, continents, genders and generations. She, or he, can imagine better, different worlds, and take us to them. And so at Radio 4 we’d like, above everything else, to hear the artist’s take on what it means to live now – and imagine a better future. To see beyond impoverished political rhetoric. To help us feel less isolated and afraid. To build and re-shape communities for the better. To laugh at the ridiculous. To mourn injustice and fight for a fairer world. To reconcile and inspire. To look at the earth under a different lens, align it with the sun and discover our inner pyromaniac. To have confidence. 6 To take risks. To defy and refute all boredom. To sing, to paint, to draw, to write and to live multiple lives. The arts are necessarily alternative. Our job is to explore what they sound like and find the voices that make us listen differently. How can artists help Radio 4 define what it means to live now? General principles on Arts proposals While being open to offers for single programmes, and holding back some commissions for offers throughout the year, we are looking to commission the following batches: Popular Arts: 5 x 6 programmes Music Features: 3 x 6 programmes Poetry: 1 x 6 and 1 x 4 programmes You do not need to list every programmme in the batch, but you do need to supply an idea of the range you have in mind. The remainder will be commissioned on a rolling basis throughout the year.