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Commissioning Children's programming

Commissioning Children's TV.

Children's TV is commissioned differently to 'adult' TV as the requirements and regulations of the programmes are much different. This is in part to protect younger audiences from inappropriate content, but is also due to the unique style of children's TV and how much it varies from 'adult' TV.
If Mission Control were to be commissioned, I pitched the programme to be broadcast on CBBC. This is because I felt it was unique enough to stand out among programmes that are on the channel, but is also exciting enough to fit in.
For this reason, I will be using the BBC Children's Commissioning Guide for my information, as this is most relevant for Mission Control.
They have different regulations for programmes that are aimed towards 0-6 year olds, and programmes aimed towards 6-16. For the purpose of relevance to Mission Control, I will be focusing on the guidelines for 6-16 year olds, as the target audience for Mission Control is 7-13.
CBBC Operation Ouch webpage

CBBC Targets

CBBC Operation Ouch Game
According to the BBC's commissioning information on their website, they are looking for children's content that is "Noisy content that stands out from the crowd" and "content delivered whenever and wherever the audience wants it". It seems that CBBC aim to have content that can spread across all of their platforms and be accessible to the audience in more than one way, much like Operation Ouch; the show has a page on their website where you can see when the next episode will air and add it to "My Shows", where the audience can have a collection of their favourite programmes and get updates on them. As well as the webpage, Operation Ouch also has a related game on the website as well as a quiz. 
CBBC Operation Ouch quiz
This kind of use of multiple platforms where the audience can interact with the show further than just viewing seems to be an important goal for CBBC. They're looking for shows that aren't just shows; they're shows that can become games and educational material.
The development priorities for the current commissioning round (2020-21) specifically for CBBC are:

  • Mystery and Intrigue
  • Celebrating Passions
  • Three or Five Parters (for iPlayer)
  • Diversity
  • Female leads (Entertainment)
The requirements for each commissioning round change as the audience demands change, which is why some proposals are deferred to the next commissioning rounds as the idea may not fit with the current requirements but may still fit with the upcoming requirements.

Commissioning

The commissioning process for CBBC begins with the twice-yearly commissioning rounds, one in Spring and one in Autumn. During the commissioning rounds, producers will begin with submitting their proposal to BBC Pitch- a system that simplifies the submission system and ensures that the proposal reaches the correct commissioner. They will input relevant information about the show- i.e. Title, plot- where the commissioner will evaluate the proposal and respond with one of 3 outcomes: 
  1. Expression of Interest for consideration at next commissioning round (i.e. No further development required) 
  2. Expression of Interest for potential consideration at future commissioning rounds, subject to further development 
  3. Rejection 
If a producer receives response 1, their proposal will enter into a pre-selection process. This process involves the head of content addressing their proposal and deciding whether it should proceed to the next step. The producer will then receive one of four responses after the pre-selection:

  1. Accepted for consideration during this commissioning round 
  2. Deferred ‘as is’ for consideration at later commissioning round - i.e. No further development work is required 
  3. Deferred for consideration at later commissioning round – subject to further idea development 
  4. Rejected
The successful proposals will then be invited to attend a full commissioning pitch with the head of content.
At the meeting, the producer will pitch to the Head of Content, Content Management Lead, and the Head of Scheduling. The producer will have to decide with their Commissioning Editor what relevant information should be presented at the pitch.

Acquisitions

Acquisitions refers to a business model wherein a larger business (in this case, the BBC) will buy content from a separate company (a production company) so that the larger business can benefit from the smaller business. The BBC buys the licensing rights for TV programmes from smaller production companies. The commissioning process and acquisitions process is similar where the pitching process is concerned, except that within acquisitions, BBC will buy pre-made content (not funded by the BBC). This works well for children's animation programmes as a producer may want the animation to be a certain style (made by a certain animator) that isn't affiliated with the BBC. It is also how international production companies can submit a proposal to the BBC.
The CBBC Acquisitions team are looking for content within the lines of:

  • Genre-busting adventure series
  • Older-skewing animated series
  • Strong, aspirational female characters
A proposal going through Acquisitions will have to face a series of legal reviews to ensure that the BBC are safe to show the content (for example, if the production company has sold the license to another broadcaster already, the BBC wouldn't be able to broadcast the programme because the other broadcaster owns the rights).
According to The Black TV and Film Collective, an acquisition will begin with going through a Chain of Title review. This review establishes proprietary of the programme to the license holder. A "Clean chain of title" means that "the chain of title does not have any gaps in the chain in ownership or issues that raise doubts regarding ownership."
They will also do a title report. This means that the buyer will check that the title of the programme isn't too similar or infringes on the copyright of a programme with a similar title.
Script clearance is a process wherein the buyer will check the script and "create a report that flags potential legal problems relating to copyright, trademark, defamation, and right to publicity and privacy issues."
Finally, once the buyer has obtained proof of ownership (Chain of Title) and a title and script clearance, the buyer will require the production company to "provide proof it has obtained an errors and omissions (E&O) insurance policy."
"E&O insurance covers any problems with rights acquisition, such as the script, underlying rights, characters, trademarks, music, clips and stock footage, images of celebrities and artwork. E&O insurance provides protection from lawsuits that allege invasion of privacy, plagiarism or pirating of ideas, copyright infringement, defamation (libel or slander), trade libel (degrading or defamation of products), and trademark infringement (including infringement of slogan or film title)."
To supply a pitch through acquisitions, the pitch should include:


  • A short pitch outlining the concept. This should contain a clear explanation of the concept, character descriptions, locations and sample storylines along with visual materials.
  • Proof of concept in the form of script(s).
  • If there is test animation or an animatic available
    • The acquisitions team will then respond to the producer or production company with the outcome of the review.
    The acquisitions process appears to be less regimented that the commissioning process, but it can be assumed that most proposals go through Commissions so that the producer can get funding for the project.

    The Audience

    An audience will affect how programmes are commissioned, as the requirements for each Commissioning Round changes. Especially in the current media climate where audiences are being drawn further towards broadcasters such as YouTube and Netflix for children's content, CBBC have to be picking the right content to commission in order to keep the audiences with them. This is likely why the current requirements for 2020/21 are for programmes than can be multi-platform like Operation Ouch. This is a way to reach audiences on a wider scale than just hoping they will watch the TV. Making content available and even more directed for iPlayer could be evidence of the BBC adding to the competition of being available to the audience as much as possible (like Netflix and YouTube).
    Tim Walker writes of how the BBC and other British broadcasters are being affected by this movement to on-demand. According to his article on the topic, The Radio Times held a vote on the best children's programmes of all time, and although they contained classics such as Blue Peter and Grange Hill, the top 5 of the list were all launched more than 4 decades ago, with only 2 of them still airing.
    This could represent how the development of content distribution has changed over the past 4 decades, enough that newer shows aren't holding the nations hearts like they used to.
    In the battle to bring the audience back to the TV screen instead of the computer screen, in 2017 the government announced £60m worth of funding for children's television to bring new content and "encourage greater variety". "The rise of streaming services such as Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime has also impacted on children's viewing habits and brought fierce competition to homegrown shows such as CBBC and CBBC on the BBC, and ITV's CITV" writes Lizzy Buchan for The Independent. 
    It's important to note the effect that the audience has on commissioning as this is ultimately what decides if your show will be commissioned. 

    How does Mission Control fit in?

    Mission Control was 'commissioned' because of the pitch that I presented in front of a panel. In the pitch, I presented information that was relevant to production of the programme in order to keep it simple and understandable in the short space of time that I got to talk to the panel. The idea needed to be clear enough that the panel could see the show fit into their requirements, which were:
    • Interesting
    • Unique
    • Bold
    • Achievable
    I presented my pitch with a clear vision of how the show will look such as a set design and moodboards, I gave them an idea of the kind of person to present the show so that they could connect to the character, and I also included a rough camera plan that involved 4 cameras, which was the maximum that we could man with our team size. I kept it realistic but also fun to look at with bright colours so that the panel would get the idea that the show was for children.
    As I presented the show to be broadcast on CBBC, I researched the programmes that are aired on CBBC to make sure that it would be unique to current content, and also made sure that Mission Control had an educational element to fit the channel.
    With the current commissioning round requirements, I believe that Mission Control celebrates passion for science and space, and also has a sense of mystery and intrigue with all the different characters that were involved. The children were engaged with the Admiral, Commander and the alien as they were characters that evoked different emotions in them, and so they wanted to get involved with the show. These different characters would also make for a good base for a game that could be put on the CBBC website, and considering the idea for the show originated from a game, the programme would be well suited to the multiple platforms.
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