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Overview

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds brings together radio, music, and podcasts into a single digital destination available via app, web, smart speaker, and in-car. On-demand audio and podcasts for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds come from commissioning editors across the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s radio networks, nations, and World Service. They work closely with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds team to deliver the editorial vision and build an industry-leading slate and listener experience.

More and more people are listening to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds, and especially to podcasts. In 2023 (Jan to Nov) there were over 2 billion plays of radio, music and podcasts on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds, with a 34% increase to podcasts year on year. On-demand music listening also continues to grow with record time spent in 2023 and a total of 47.6 million plays for music mixes on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds.

In addition, there are millions of downloads of ´óÏó´«Ã½ podcasts on third party platforms each month. Podcasting enables us to bring trusted journalism, storytelling, entertainment, drama, and other brilliant speech audio to wider and underserved audiences in new, creative ways. Our podcasts are made by world-class producers in and outside the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and are critically acclaimed.

We want to work with a wide range of suppliers and podcast-makers to commission brilliant podcasts and on-demand music shows that showcase existing and emerging UK talent and do more to serve all our audiences - in the UK and around the world.

Jonathan Wall is the Director of Sounds and leads on the digital transformation of the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s audio business working closely with directors, controllers and commissioners across the ´óÏó´«Ã½. Jonathan Kanagasooriam is the Head of Content for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds and he works with the 3 radio directors to set an OD demand speech and music strategy for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in the UK, and with colleagues from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Studios to set a global podcast strategy.

Podcast commissioning

The commissioning teams at Radio 4 and Radio 3 are interested in podcasts with fresh approaches to investigating, entertaining, informing and educating. Read more about each of the commissioners or any open podcast opportunities here.

The commissioning team at Radio 5 Live is looking for ideas rooted in the station’s editorial offer of news, sport and entertainment. Commissioners work closely with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport and ´óÏó´«Ã½ News, and many independent production companies. Podcasts usually fall under three categories: Real-life storytelling, Sports and Sports entertainment and Topical entertainment. Read more about commissioners here and open podcast briefs here.

The World Service team looks for propulsive, ‘unputdownable’ factual multi-episode storytelling. The story could be important original journalism, true crime, a deep dive or the retelling of an historic event or something completely different. You can read more on our ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service commissioning p²¹²µ±ð.

You’ll find details about all the latest opportunities on each of the radio network websites, and commissioning contact details below.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s Nations and Regions teams also play a huge part in ensuring that our offer serves audiences across the UK. For regional podcast pitches, please contact the relevant leads:

• ´óÏó´«Ã½ English Regions: Kathryn Morrison, Executive Producer
• ´óÏó´«Ã½ Northern Ireland: Paul McClean, Executive Editor
• ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland: Gareth Hydes, Commissioning Editor
• ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales: Bridget Curnow, Senior Content Producer

Music Commissioning

Commissioning editors across ´óÏó´«Ã½ Music and its networks are looking to develop and commission on-demand music series and new formats aimed at younger, music-loving audiences. This includes major artist formats for young audiences, landmark music moments across the ´óÏó´«Ã½ - from returning artists to anniversaries, festivals to Eurovision.

If you’re not sure if your idea is a music podcast, on-demand music show or something in between please contact the . Read more about the open process here.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds Audio Lab

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds Audio Lab is an ‘accelerator’ programme designed to amplify the UK’s best new podcasters and the next-generation audio creatives. Successful applicants will have some audio production or narrative storytelling experience and be looking to pitch a great idea, unheard story or fresh perspective that needs to be heard.

Audio Lab is an ‘accelerator’ programme designed to amplify early career podcasters and audio creatives - across the UK.  Successful applicants are embedded in ´óÏó´«Ã½ and independent production teams which support and lead them to produce a distinctive podcast series for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds. For more information, you can visit the Audio Lab website

Acquisitions

We publish a growing number of independently-produced podcasts on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds – non-exclusively and ad-free with payment based on volume of listening. Some of our titles include No Such Thing As A Fish, Real Dictators, Shedunnit and Help I Sexted My Boss.

We now have a dedicated team to acquire and publish titles on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds and grow their audience on the platform. For pitches and further details, please contact the team at enquiries.podcastacquisition@bbc.co.uk

Current and upcoming opportunities

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Bitesize are pleased to announce the opening of a commissioning round for the following title: 

´óÏó´«Ã½ Bitesize History Podcast

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds Contacts

• Jonathan Wall Director of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds

• Jonathan Kanagasooriam Head of Content, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds

• Khaliq Meer Commissioning Executive, Audio Lab

• Podcast Acquisitions: enquiries.podcastacquisition@bbc.co.uk