Commission & Distribution Log - Week 1 05/10/07

Hi Mike, here with week one of my log...

We spent the lesson researching the commissioning process in particular editorial guidelines. We examined the BBC commissioning website http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/ to look at theirs.

This is an extract from the site:

The BBC is committed to delivering the highest editorial and ethical standards in the provision of its programmes and services both in the UK and around the world.

We seek to balance our rights to freedom of expression and information with our responsibilities, for example, to respect privacy and protect children.

The BBC Editorial Guidelines are a statement of the values and standards we have set for ourselves over the years. They also codify the good practice we expect from the creators and makers of all BBC content, whether it is made by the BBC itself or by an Independent company working for the BBC and whether it is made for:

* radio
* television
* online
* mobile devices
* interactive services
* the printed word.

Editorial guidelines are important to the producer as they provide a framework to work around and give an idea of the type of content the channel commissions. Editorial guidelines differ from one channel to another. What would be appropriate for BBC 1 may not be appropriate for Channel 4. This alludes to the four DO's when pitching for a commission (selling your idea):

KNOW YOUR CHANNELS
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
KNOW YOUR MARKETS
KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

There are literally hundreds of channels from terrestrial's such as BBC 1 and ITV to free view and satellite channels like Sky 1 and the discovery channel and each one has different guidelines .We also looked at channel 4's commissioning website http://www.channel4.com/corporate/4producers/ It was interesting to note that due to the nature of commissioning,the fact that treatments are passed around the company to different departments, Commissions are only excepted in electronic formats such as word or PDF documents.