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Destination happy!

It’s our goal to make the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and iPlayer the destination for entertainment. Whether that’s serving sequins and glitterballs on Strictly Come Dancing and RuPaul's Drag Race UK, or back-stabbing reality with The Traitors and The Apprentice. We are always on the lookout for the next big thing and are passionate about developing the best ideas with incredible production talent from around the UK. Without wanting to over-prescribe, here are some of the things that are working and what we’re looking for now.

Saturday night is still alright

In this digital-first world it’s easy to forget that Saturday nights still see some of our biggest audiences watching live on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One and iPlayer. We need to continue our drive to find the next big smash hit that has mass appeal and gets the country sitting down together to watch. Gladiators, Strictly Come Dancing and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show achieve this and we’re always looking for new big hitters in this space.

Teatime and early peak

Do remember that Saturday nights aren’t just for that prime-time showpiece. The whole evening from teatime to bedtime should feel like back-to-back, consistently fun entertainment. Homes across the country are a hive of activity - from parents getting dinner ready, friends gathering before going out, to couples settling down on the sofa together.

We need shows that cut through the noise and grab viewers’ attention – whether that’s with the cheeky humour of Bradley Walsh on Blankety Blank, or Romesh Ranganathan on The Weakest Link, to viewers playing along to The Hit List with Marvin and Rochelle Humes, Alan Carr’s Picture Slam and Michael McIntyre's The Wheel.

So, as well as the big tariff prime time offerings, we also need shows to complement them in the earlier tea-time space to create a full Saturday evening of entertainment. We’re particularly interested in fun, light-hearted and high-energy formats that will help audiences right across the UK kick-start the perfect Saturday night in.

Making iPlayer the streaming destination

We want to make iPlayer the destination for viewers looking for fantastic entertainment and reality. Across our slate we see strong performance on iPlayer from reality driven competition shows like The Apprentice and The Traitors, to youth-skewing shows such as Ru Paul's Drag Race UK and Doctor Who Unleashed.

For iPlayer we’re looking for big, noisy ideas that can stand out on the crowded platform. This could be through big name celebrities, attention grabbing titles, bright and impactful imagery, or instantly graspable concepts. Please think about what the unique selling point of your idea will be for audiences and whether it can be instantly communicated on the iPlayer front page. What is it about your idea that will stand out and make viewers want to click?

We also want shows that you wouldn’t expect to see on the ´óÏó´«Ã½. Just like The Traitors, they should feel tonally fresh and appeal to a modern mainstream audience, so we are interested in exciting new forms and devices that could help rejuvenate the classic entertainment areas.

We know viewers respond to reality-skewing shows with talent attached who are invested in the ideas and can bring along an existing social-media audience. Reality shows need a diverse cast of characters and a simple premise that is guaranteed to create drama.

Younger audiences are the most over-served when it comes to content online, so we have to work even harder to grab their attention. Big name celebrities and bigger, louder concepts are the best way to do this. The most successful streaming shows have obvious shareable ‘WTF?’ moments and drive an organic conversation online. Find out more about commissioning unscripted for iPlayer.

Underserved audiences

It’s our aim to create a broad enough range of content so that everyone in the country can see themselves represented on screen. So we need a very broad and diverse cast, and portrayal is key to our success. We want to offer something for everyone – from studio quizzes to explosive reality, and there is plenty of scope to do this. What do you see lacking in our programming and can you help us plug that gap? 

Recently we’ve commissioned a hit reality show set in the North East, created drag shows with nationwide appeal, broken the mould with casting on the biggest dance show in the UK, and brought the mighty Gladiators to Sheffield Arena, but we’re always looking to break new ground and would love to hear your ideas for where we could go next.

Supporting diverse people and productions

We're passionate about ensuring everyone who watches our content are represented on-screen, and we're also committed to building a more diverse production community off-camera. We've made ambitious targets and commitments to help grow a more diverse TV industry including ringfencing £100m of our commissioning spend for diverse projects and people and asking all the producers we work with to ensure at least 20% of those in their production teams are from diverse and under-represented groups. There are a wealth of resources available to help producers meet our targets and improve the representation of those from diverse backgrounds and different life experiences on and off-screen.

Creating sustainable programmes

We have a duty to keep the environmental impact of our programmes to a minimum, and we are also keen to reflect our audiences concerns and experiences of sustainability and climate change in our content on-screen. We have a range of resources to help programme makers ensure sustainability is embedded in the content they make for us.

Unscripted on iPlayer

Read about how we commission unscripted content in an iPlayer first-world, along with advice and further resources to maximise the impact of your programme on the platform.