Specialist Factual at the BBC is to be commissioned in three categories: reputation drivers, volume drivers, and multi-platform drivers, says BBC head of Specialist Factual Jack Bootle.
Speaking to Televisual for our upcoming Factual genre report in the Autumn issue of the magazine, Bootle explained why he is changing the approach to commissioning and outlined what he is looking for in each of these three categories, across the Specialist Factual remit which includes science, natural history, history, religion and ethics.
“I’m now thinking differently about commissioning, and what is motivating that change is a desire for greater clarity. One of the mistakes that we sometimes make in TV is we expect every programme to do everything: we want something to get six million viewers and to transform society and to win a BAFTA and to skew under 26 and to cost £200k…Good luck with that.
A healthier commissioning strategy is to be really clear about the job each programme is being asked to do. With my team, I’ve started dividing what we do into three broad categories of content, and at the heart of each category is a question: What is this programme actually for?
The three categories of content are reputation drivers, volume drivers, and multi-platform drivers,
Reputation drivers tend to be singles and short series, and they are there to make a noise. They’re there to win awards. They’re there to grow talent. They’re there to make a statement about what the BBC is. They’re not there primarily to drive volume. If they get lots of lovely viewers, fantastic, I’m delighted. But that isn’t their key job. Their key job is to burnish the BBC’s reputation. Titles like Buried ,with Michael Sheen, a series in which the actor Michael Sheen investigates a hidden toxic waste scandal. It’s a story that Michael has a really deep personal connection to and since it went out questions have been raised in Parliament.
And then Hostage, a gripping series about John Cantlie, a war photographer who was kidnapped by ISIS. An historical thriller that got you into the war in Syria. That’s been nominated for multiple awards this year, including a Grierson.
The second category of content is volume drivers, shows designed to drive viewership, to create brands that can aggregate viewer hours. Here, I’m really looking at returning shows, programmes that people can develop a long-term relationship with. Like Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club, the highest rating new series on BBC Two this year. That show I think can run and run.
And Wilderness with Simon Reeve, which was one of the highest-rated series on BBC Two a couple of years ago. It’s returning for series two this month.
The third category of content is multi-platform drivers. This is probably where my brief has changed most significantly. I’m not just commissioning for linear and iPlayer anymore. I’m also commissioning for YouTube, TikTok, and Sounds. So the specialist factual story is spreading out across multiple platforms. It gives the BBC a chance to speak to even more specialist factual fans.
Multi-platform drivers are ultra low-cost, high-volume series that are designed to sit on iPlayer and on other platforms, such as Sounds, YouTube, and TikTok, and they they tend to be inspired by digital native form – video podcasts or creator-driven content. They’re there to reach young users where they are, and to build communities of fans.
Sometimes I co-commission with BBC YouTube channels such as Deepwatch, and sometimes I co-commission them with Sounds, which is our podcast platform, and sometimes I just commission them solo, with no investment from other parts of the BBC.
One example is a series called Naturewatch, an expansion of Springwatch. Springwatch has an army of fans. When Springwatch is not on air they disappear, they don’t have a show to congregate around. That feels like a real missed opportunity. So, we have commissioned an always-on video podcast, which is going to publish as a half-hour show every week of the year, on iPlayer, on BBC Two and it will also go out as a purely audio experience on Sounds. Alongside that video podcast, there will be a 10-minute Q and A each week, which is audio only, and that will be exclusive to Sounds.
It’s a weekly place to talk about all the latest goings on in the natural world in the UK. What are people seeing? What’s migrating through the country? What’s breeding? What’s changing? What should I be looking for outside my window? It’s topical, it’s communal and it’s taking that relationship that exists between Springwatch and its fan base and making that relationship even deeper. That is going to launch in late October.
Clickbait Clinic will get a Q and A spin-off for a new BBC YouTube channel called Motion, launching later this year. Stacey Dooley and Dr. Alex George [who featured on Love Island] will answer questions about health. We hope that it will drive people to watch it on YouTube and they will then come through to iPlayers to watch the traditional series. We’re also very happy to see a distinct audience forming around that show on YouTube.
The message I would give to producers: think more broadly about what a specialist actual idea is. I’m definitely still looking for a brilliant BBC One idea, for an extraordinary, authored film on BBC Two, for a big natural history proposition. None of that’s gone away. But I think the thing that’s changed is perhaps your idea doesn’t need to be three hours of traditional television. Maybe there’s a different form which is better for that idea. Maybe it’s a weekly video podcast. Maybe it’s 10 x 15-minute films to sit on iPlayer and YouTube. Maybe it’s working with a creator that we’ve never worked before. But don’t assume that low cost means low ambition, because the opposite can be true. When financial risk is lower, our creative risk can be higher.”
Read in more depth about what Jack Bootle is looking for in Specialist Factual content in the report in Televisual’s printed issue, out in October, or online on Televisual +.
Pippa Considine
Share this story
