Next BBC titles announced for competitive tender
The BBC today announced the next titles to be put out to competitive tender as part of the Charter and Agreement requirement to open up more of the BBC’s TV programmes to competition; they are Mastermind, Later with Jools Holland and Hootenanny.
Published: 1 August 2018
These are highly successful shows which are firm audience favourites. We look forward to seeing who will make them for us in the future, as part of our commitment to competition.
An invitation to tender for Mastermind will be published in September 2018; it will include the main series on BBC Two and Celebrity Mastermind on BBC One. A single invitation to tender for both BBC Two’s Later with Jools Holland and Hootenanny will also be published in September 2018.
BBC Content will invite pitches from all producers and a full list of eligibility criteria and requirements for the shows will be openly shared with all suppliers. The BBC will retain all Intellectual Property rights for the programmes, which will continue to be shown on the BBC, but the tendering process will decide which supplier makes the series.
Richard Dawkins, Chief Operating Officer, BBC Content says: “These are highly successful shows which are firm audience favourites. We look forward to seeing who will make them for us in the future, as part of our commitment to competition."
Bob Shennan, Director, BBC Radio and Music, says: “These two flagship titles are critical parts of the TV music calendar. Later with Jools Holland is central to our topical live strategy, and Hootenanny is a firm audience destination for New Year's Eve. It makes sense for these two titles to be competed in a single tender as there are significant cross-overs between the two”.
In addition, there will be a broader range and volume of The One Show insert films open for competition this year, building on the annual commissioning round. An invitation to pitch (ITP) detailing the opportunity, requirements and terms will be available on the commissioning website shortly.
The other titles opened up to competitive tender were A Question of Sport, Holby City, Doctors and Songs of Praise. The first three were all retained by BBC Studios and the latter was awarded to two independent producers Avanti and Nine Lives. Horizon was also opened up to a competitive pitch process, with independent producers Windfall Films and Wingspan Productions joining BBC Studios to produce bundles of films for the BBC’s flagship science strand, as well as a number of single films commissioned from a range of independent producers.
Daytime series Bargain Hunt was the sixth title to be opened up to competition in February and that process is still under way. Most recently TV coverage of the Proms was opened up to competition; its Invitation to Tender (ITT) was published in June and the process will resume later in the year once the season is over.
The tendering of returning series currently produced by BBC Studios forms part of the Compete or Compare strategy launched by the BBC in 2014, which underlined the BBC’s commitment to commission the best programmes for audiences, regardless of who makes them. The BBC will be releasing further opportunities to the market across 2018, some of these will be further tenders for existing series, some will be specific invitations to pitch for new shows with a clear purpose, and others will be open to competition for the best ideas as part of the normal commissioning process.
The requirements for each tender are communicated at the time of publication, with enough time for suppliers to do appropriate research and preparation.
MO
