Terms and Conditions for the 2025 Countryfile Photo Competition
The title for the BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition 2025 is “Wild Encounters”. The theme is open to your personal interpretation but we’re looking for stunning photographs of the UK’s landscape, its wildlife, weather, or our human interaction with the environment around us. It’s really up to you how you interpret “Wild Encounters”.
Photographs taken in previous years can be submitted. Please indicate when the photograph was taken.
The twelve photographs selected by the judges will appear in the Countryfile Calendar for 2026, and a minimum of £5.50 from the sale of each calendar will benefit BBC Children in Need (charity number 802052 in England & Wales and SC039557 in Scotland). The overall winner will be voted for by Countryfile viewers. The judges will also choose their favourite entry. You can enter up to three photos in total. The closing date for entries is 10am on Monday 28th July 2025. The person who takes the winning photo will receive a gift card to the value of £1,000, which can be spent on photographic equipment of their choice, at a number of outlets. The person who takes the photo that the judges like best will receive a gift card to the value of £500 which can also be spent on photographic equipment at a number of outlets. Since its launch in 1998, the calendar has raised more than £33 million for BBC Children in Need. Please read the rules before entering.
GENERAL RULES
1. The title for the BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition 2025 is “Wild Encounters”. The theme is open to your personal interpretation but we’re looking for beautiful photographs that show off the best of British countryside, its wildlife (whether found in the countryside or in a more urban setting), agriculture and recreation.
Photos of pets and zoo animals are not permitted. Images of UK wildlife in captivity are also ineligible. That includes photographs of wildlife taken in cages, aquariums, tanks, enclosures, pens or in any situation where the animal has been captured or restrained. Any photographs of animals in the wild that have been captured using bird seed, fruit, nuts or any other means of attraction must be declared as such at the time of entry. The BBC’s decision as to the eligibility of individual photographs will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Entrants must not cause injury or do anything to distress any animal or damage its habitat, either deliberately or inadvertently, whilst trying to take a photograph. This includes the flying of drones, which should not be flown too close or too noisily to wildlife, or their habitats or nest sites. Please click on the links below for guidance about filming and photographing wildlife.
Entrants – including those using drones – must have the necessary permits and licences for photographing wildlife, and should, where necessary, have permission from the landowners to be on their land. They should be ready to provide proof if asked to do so by the competition organisers.
2. Photographs entered must be taken in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
3. Entrants can submit up to three photos in total (in landscape orientation and as JPEG, PNG or GIFF format) to the competition website. To upload your photos, you will need to log into your BBC account, which you can do here. If you do not have a BBC account, you can register for one for free here. If you have any trouble registering or signing in, you can visit the help pages.
4. Countryfile is aware that digital photography does allow for some image enhancement. You can enter images that have had spots, scratches or other blemishes removed. You can have worked on the colour or enhanced the image for the sake of the composition. You can also crop the image to improve composition.
We will not accept composite images - entries that stitch two or more separate photographs together to make one image, or entries that superimpose elements photographed separately onto an image. We will not accept the use of AI during the creation, design or development of the images.
We want you to stay faithful to the spirit of the competition and never deceive the viewer or misrepresent the aspect of nature being portrayed. BBC Countryfile and the judges reserve the right to exclude any image they believe may have been excessively treated so as to alter its authenticity.
5. The competition is open to UK residents only (including residents of the Channel Islands and Isle of Man). Employees of a BBC Group company or the BBC, BBC Children in Need and Art of Design, as well as their immediate families are not eligible to enter. Entrants under the age of 18 need the verifiable permission of a parent or guardian to enter.
6. Entrants must not be professional photographers. For the purposes of this competition, a professional photographer will be considered to be someone who makes more than half their annual income from the sale of their photographs.
7. Entrants must complete all sections of the online form. Online entrants under the age of 18 will need their parents or guardians to fill out the sections asking for their parent’s name, phone number and email address, and to tick the box permission to their child’s participation. All contact from BBC Countryfile will be made through the parent/guardian.
8. The competition submission period closes at 10am on Monday 28th July 2025. Entries received after this time will not be considered.
The BBC, BBC Studios or their subsidiaries cannot accept any responsibility for any problem with the internet service provider, network or other system which may result in any entry being delayed or not properly registered.
Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and no feedback on any entry will be provided.
9. All photographs will be judged on the following criteria:
- Composition
- Technical ability
- Originality
- Public appeal
- Is it on theme
- Suitability for inclusion in a BBC Children in Need calendar
10. The photographs will be judged through the following process:
Stage One
All entries will be assessed in the first instance by members of the BBC Countryfile team and Art of Design. From this initial process a maximum of 240 of the best photographs will be chosen to go forward for the final judging.
Stage Two
A second panel of judges will then review all the entries on the short-list and select the 12 best, based on the above criteria. The panel will also select their overall favourite.
Each of the shortlisted entrants will be contacted by a member of the BBC Countryfile team within a week of judging. The judging will take place within three weeks of the competition closing date.
If after reasonable attempts a shortlisted entrant cannot be contacted, the BBC reserves the right to offer the place on the shortlist to the next best entry.
Stage Three – The Public Vote
All 12 finalists will be featured on the BBC Countryfile programme, and the audience will be asked to vote for their favourite. The overall winner will be the entry which receives the most public votes. Details of how the public can vote, and the rules of the voting, will be published on the BBC Countryfile website and on the programme.
11. The prize for the overall winner will be a gift card to the value of £1,000 which can be spent on photographic equipment at a number of outlets. The entry selected as the overall judges’ favourite will receive a gift card to the value of £500 which can also be spent on photographic equipment at a number of outlets. The prizes are as stated and cannot be deferred or transferred. There will be no cash alternatives. The judges’ favourite and the overall winner can be the same photograph – in which case the winning photographer will receive both prizes.
12. The finalists shall appear in the Countryfile Calendar 2026, to be sold in aid of the BBC Children in Need Appeal. The finalists’ photos may also be published in the BBC Countryfile magazine and used in other promotions of the competition.
13. In the event of a technical problem or evidence of impropriety regarding the viewers’ vote, the judges shall have the final decision. If the viewers' vote results in a tie, the judges shall have the casting vote. The judges' decisions will be final, and no correspondence can be entered into.
14. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all photographs entered and must have obtained permission of any people featured in the entries or their parents/guardians if children under 18 are featured. Where an individual or a residential or commercial property, belonging to someone other than the photographer is featured, or it has been taken on private land the photographer must seek permission and be prepared to provide evidence of written consent to the BBC and/or BBC Studios when requested. Further, entrants must not have breached any laws when taking their photographs.
15. We are looking for original photographs, so entries must not have won any national or international competition prize previously. For the purposes of this competition, ‘national’ refers to the whole of the UK – or to individual national competitions in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
16. Entrants will retain copyright in the photographs that they submit to the BBC. By entering the competition all entrants grant to the BBC the non-exclusive right to publish and exhibit their photographs on television, on social media, in the Countryfile Calendar and on the BBC’s websites in perpetuity. Entrants whose photographs are one of the final 12 also agree to take part in post-competition publicity.
Entrants whose photographs are one of the finalists or selected to appear in the Countryfile Calendar 2026 pursuant to clause 12 above, grant to the BBC (including the BBC’s subsidiaries and other publishers authorised by the BBC) the further rights to publish and exhibit their photographs in print, on their respective websites or in any other media known now or in the future in perpetuity. No fees will be payable for any of the above uses. Entrants whose photographs are one of the finalists also agree to take part in post-competition publicity. While we make every effort to credit photographers, including in printed reproductions of their work, we cannot guarantee that every use of the photographs will include the photographers' names and therefore entrants waive any moral rights that may exist in the photographs. Entrants must ensure that the photograph is not used to publicise or promote companies, individuals, organisations or causes – other than BBC Children In Need, BBC Countryfile (including the photographic competition, the calendar and any associated BBC promotions) and the winning photographer themselves – until 31st January 2027.
17. If your entry is shortlisted and/or featured in the programme, the BBC Countryfile team may undertake reasonable background research about you. This may include searches of publicly available records such as participation in previous television productions or information from social media profiles, including Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Such personal data will generally be restricted to relevant members of the BBC Countryfile production team and crew, as well as BBC Countryfile’s third-party experts (where relevant) and the BBC. Entrants warrant they have not acted or omitted to act in a manner that will bring the BBC or BBC Studios into disrepute. Where it deems appropriate, the BBC may require shortlisted entrants to disclose any unspent criminal convictions and/or any current court proceedings, specifics of which will be agreed between the BBC and the entrant if required. Information discovered or that may have been disclosed by the entrants themselves will inform the decision as to the selection of the finalists. Disqualification will not be automatic, but the decision is in the sole discretion of the BBC. Information will be shared with the BBC’s editorial policy advisor for the programme and be handled in the strictest confidence and as with all personal data, in accordance with the Privacy Notice: BBC One - Countryfile - Countryfile Photographic Competition 2025 Privacy Notice
18. By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these rules and the BBC and/or BBC Studios reserves the right to exclude any entry from the competition at any time and in its absolute discretion if the BBC and/or BBC Studios has reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules, acted fraudulently in any way or brings the BBC and/or BBC Studios into disrepute. When an entry is submitted by a parent or guardian on behalf of an entrant, the parent and/or guardian shall be responsible for the entrant’s compliance with these rules.
19. The BBC reserves the right to cancel this competition or alter any of the rules at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control.
20. If the winner is unable to be contacted after reasonable attempts have been made, the BBC reserves the right to either offer the prize to a runner up, or to re-offer the prize in any future competition.
21. These rules are governed by the laws of England and Wales. This competition is administered by the BBC.
22. The BBC’s code of conduct for competitions applies to this competition. You can read more about it here; https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidance/code-of-conduct
23. BBC Terms of Use apply to this Competition. For the avoidance of doubt, for the purposes of the Terms of Use entries to the Competition are not considered a creation.
24. Please take your photos responsibly and always follow the Countryside Code. You can find more information here;
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-countryside-code
25. For information about licences for photographing wildlife please follow the guidance here;
Photographs must be taken responsibly adhering to all government guidelines across the British Isles. Respect must be given for local habitats, communities and business such as farmland and nature reserves where there may be local instructions in place for visitors, walkers and others enjoying the countryside.
We will only accept JPEGs, PNGs or GIFFs uploaded to the BBC Countryfile Photo Competition website, we will not accept hard copies sent through the post.
For information about how we handle personal data and your rights visit the Privacy Notice:BBC One - Countryfile - Countryfile Photographic Competition 2025
