BBC - Commissioning - Radio Business Affairs


	John Moran (020) 7765 0653 Mail Me

	Emma Trevelyan (020) 7765 3607 Mail Me

	Charles Farmer (020) 7765 0651 Mail Me

	Dominic Borer (020) 7765 0359 Mail Me
	Jon Lindley (020) 7765 3255 Mail Me
	Kate Fawcett (020) 7765 1078 Mail Me

	Susan Hayman (020) 7765 1293 Mail Me


	Gerardina Carbone (020) 7765 4901 Mail Me

	Michael Davis (020) 7765 3649 Mail Me

	Lesley Eaton (020) 7765 4619 Mail Me

	Reina Bonici-Mompalao-Lee (020) 7765 3626 Mail Me

	Amir-Hussain Shah (020) 7765 0435 Mail Me

What we do

The Legal and Business Affairs team negotiates your budgets, issues your programme production agreements and provides support relating thereto, on behalf of all the BBC's national radio stations.

The Legal and Business Affairs Executives will deal with any queries arising and will be happy to talk to you about any clearance, contractual or legal issues you may have during production.

We are all based on the third floor of Henry Wood House - do feel free to drop by if you are in the building.

1. Getting Commissioned

If you have never been commissioned by BBC radio before and have an idea you would like to submit to the BBC, please contact the relevant radio station, details of how to pitch are available here.

All new suppliers will need to supply the following details to the Finance Assistant as soon as possible after a programme has been commissioned by the relevant Network and your budget has been agreed:

Company Name / Contact Name / Telephone Details / Fax Details / Bank Name & Address / Account Name / Sort Code

We may require you to set up a trust account for a particular programme or series of programmes. If this is the case, you will be required to complete the following Bank Mandate [Word version, 2000 Kb] also available in PDF [222 Kb].

2. Your contract with the BBC

A summary of the terms agreed with the radio independent production sector is set out in the Terms of Trade [PDF, 172 KB]

The programme production agreement that the BBC would expect to conclude with an independent producer is made up of the General Terms [PDF, 588 KB] and the Special Terms [PDF, 92 KB].

Payment terms

For the majority of radio commissions the cashflow is payable in two stages: 50% on signature and return of your production agreement, and 50% on delivery of all programme-related material as specified in the programme production agreement (section 6 of the Commissioning Specification). For larger commissions, the cashflow may be amended to three or four stages to reflect the production schedule; and for long-running series, to monthly payments. This should be raised and discussed at the time of the budget negotiation.

Invoices

Invoices should be sent to Steria only after the relevant paperwork and deliverables have been submitted. Payment queries should be directed to Steria on (020) 7326 9760 or steria.bbcaccountspayable@steria.co.uk.

For guidance, please see our template invoice [Word document, 33 KB]. It is imperative that your VAT invoice include the details specified in this template, including Purchase Order Number and Finance Assistant's details (ie "BBC Contact: Amir-Hussain Shah (020) 7765 0435") in case of a query.

Address for invoices

Steria, BBC Accounts Payable,
PO Box 479, Manchester M14 0EJ.
Telephone: (020) 7326 9760
Email for invoices (which must be sent as "locked" documents such as PDF format): steriaInvoiceEmail@steria.co.uk

3. Programme-Making Process

The Starter Pack [PDF, 43 KB] is a general overview of all the things you need to consider when making a programme for the BBC including Health and Safety, Insurance and BBC Policies and Guidelines.

4. Underlying Rights

There is some information in the Starter Pack [PDF, 43 KB] regarding clearance of underlying rights and a guide to what you need to do for writers, actors and music is available here [PDF, 51 KB].

We have drafted templates for you to use (if you wish) for the clearance of published works which are based on the BBC's agreements with the Publisher's Association - there is one for extracts [PDF, 32 Kb] and one for complete works [PDF, 39 Kb]. If you choose to use these templates we ask that you do not agree any alterations to the terms without consulting Business Affairs. Any amendments which you agree could affect the BBC's negotiating position when clearing published works for inhouse productions.

All the above agreements contain details of the standard rates for commissioning the relevant contribution, we will update these agreements when these rates change.

As of July 2006, budgets for readings, dramas and sitcoms reflect the New Public Services Fee in the writers' contract(s). We would expect you to pre-clear the rights covered by the New Public Services Fee as defined in the relevant agreements. To clarify, this includes internet streaming, audio on-demand rights and pre-cleared repeats of the writers' contributions on the BBC's digital networks for a period of five years from first analogue broadcast.

The Underlying Rights Guide contains some suggested wording for you to include in your performers' contracts to make sure that they are covered by the BBC's blanket licence with Equity for repeats on BBC7.

5. Health & Safety

All independent production companies working for the BBC need to complete a Health and Safety Questionnaire [Word File, 37KB]. Gerardina Carbone will send this to you along with a covering letter once she's received instruction to do so by a radio network. Advice on how to complete the questionnaire is included in the Starter Pack [PDF, 43 KB], and an example of a completed questionnaire [PDF, 3.1 MB] can be reviewed.

6. Proteus

Programme proposals must be submitted via the electronic commissioning system called Proteus. To enquire about obtaining access to this system please contact Gerardina Carbone on (020) 7765 4901 or gerardina.carbone@bbc.co.uk. Please let us know at the time of making the programme proposal via the Rights section on Proteus if there are any variations to General Term 6 that we will need to discuss. When completing the Rights section, please use wording similar to that usually used in clause 3.2 of the Special Terms of your contract - samples of clause 3.2 are available here [PDF, 17KB].

7. New Media Commissions

If you are interested in supplying new media services to BBC Audio & Music, you must register as a New Media Supplier here.

The registration is the first step to the BBC's assessment of the suitability of businesses for inclusion on the Approved Supplier List which can be viewed here.

8. Commercial Exploitation

If you want to commercially exploit your programme in accordance with the Terms of Trade, you will need to follow the:

Who's Who