Documentary Unit: BBC Three Research

I thought it would be a good idea to find more about BBC Three and how it goes about commissioning shows and what its target Audience is.

The controlled for BBC Three is Zai Bennett.

Below is a Commissioning Brief from this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/briefs/tv/browse-by-channel/bbc-three/

Our Priorities

BBC Three is a mixed genre channel for young audiences.

We have three key priorities:

• The channel needs to be disciplined about focusing on the young - its centre of gravity will be 16-34 year-olds: people who are young in spirit and mindset.
• BBC Three is ‘Never Afraid to Try New Things’ and that’s why we will continue to innovate with breakthrough comedy, stand-out entertainment, brave documentary and intelligent factual formats. Our content needs to have potential to innovate across platforms.
• BBC Three should provide an environment for the development of new ideas and talent and for existing talent to take risks, becoming a genuine laboratory for BBC One and BBC Two

I then wanted to look more specifically at Documentaries on BBC Three and from the same link found this:

Documentary and Current Affairs

Whether its matters of body or mind, bringing programming together around a single season or theme works well on BBC Three. The Criminal Britain and The Body Beautiful seasons were great successes and more recently we aired It's a Mad World, an agenda setting season of thought-provoking and often uplifting programmes dedicated to debunking the myths and taboos around mental health issues. We are always seeking ideas for new seasons that will engage with our audience.  And this engagement can also be more light- hearted.   Our documentary series The Call Centre, achieved high ratings with our audiences when, thanks to boss Nev, we got involved with the lives and loves of the very entertaining employees of a Swansea call centre.

We are also looking for ideas for single documentaries like the hard-hitting India: A Dangerous Place To Be A Woman and Petrol Bombs and Peace: Welcome to Belfast, as well as series that can shine a light on domestic and international issues such as Stacey Dooley’s three part investigation into drug trafficking.  And we’ve had  great success with fast turnaround documentaries reflecting big news stories eg Oscar Pistorius: What Really Happened?  Horsemeat Banquet and The Cleveland Captives: What Really Happened? 
 

I think both of the ideas we have will fit into the BBC Three Channel well. 

Looking at scheduling i think that the Casey Stoney Story would work well on a Monday at 9pm. 

Currently on in this time slot is a documentary called Reggie Yates's Extreme South Africa and looking at the next few weeks the other show that is coming into the time slot is another documentary called EDL Girls: Don't Call Me Racist. The Reggie Yates Programme is part of a 3 episode series where as the EDL programme is a stand alone show. It also has a strong lead in show for that time called Junior Paramedics which is a spin off based on the success of the show Junior Doctors. As these shows are popular is would help to increase the audience for the 9pm time slot with our one off documentary. 

On rival channels at this time currently are: 

ITV2 - 8:30pm - Dinner Date

            9:30pm - Real Housewives of Atlanta

MTV - 8:05pm - Catfish: The TV Show

            9:00pm - The Real World: Ex-plosion

E4 - 8:30pm - 2 Broke Girls

        9:00pm - Revenge

E! Entertainment - 8:00pm - Miley Cyrus (Documentary)

                               9:00pm - RichKids of Beverley Hills

There is nothing similar on at this time on any of these channels and i think that with BBC Three already having this time slot for documentaries our shows would stand up well against these primarily American imports.

On the main Channels are:

BBC One - 8:30pm - Panorama

                   9:00pm - Silk

BBC Two - 8:00pm - The Hairy Bikers' Asian Adventure

                   9:00pm - 37 Days

ITV -  8:30pm - Coronation Street

           9:00pm - DCI Banks

Channel 4 - 8:00pm - Food Unwrapped

                   9:00pm - One Born Every Minute

Despite other channels having documentaries in this time slot i feel our target audience (16-34 year olds) are more likely to watch our documentaries as they are more age appropriate and will be specifically made for that age group rather than a wider audience. One Born Every Minute will particularly be popular among women and especially mothers or soon to be mothers. This may cut into a portion of our audience but i feel that our ideas are strong enough and original enough to still work. 

Stay safe,

Helen