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Music TV has rarely been so important to broadcasters and publishers as it is right now.

In a time of heavy content saturation, music programming – from live events to documentaries - plays a pivotal role, creating appointment to view, must-watch moments and serving audiences with content that is also available on demand.

While performance programming and factual documentaries remain the bedrock of the department, we’re looking to explore how we can expand those boundaries and branch out further. We want to hear ideas that have a flavour of factual entertainment, popular factual or investigative journalism as a way to broaden our offering to the viewers and reach new audiences.

If we love an idea we’ll find the right home for it across the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, but it’s important to note that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer is playing a growing role in how we filter new ideas and make commissions so it’s worth considering how your idea will stand out on digital as well as on linear, including what thumbnail image and programme title will hook people in on the platform.

What we’re looking for

Premium feature documentaries or boxset series that have scale, ideas that can follow the successes of Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World, Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution and First Ladies of Hip-Hop. Although not essential for shows such as this to include access to big name talent, we’re looking for ideas that feel elevated above a traditional talking head/archive show. If your idea isn’t talent fronted we’d need to understand how the story would still stand out from the pack - what’s the news story that will get people talking before and after it lands?

Returnable high-volume series to feed into our established ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two Saturday evenings, with a nostalgia focus that spans the decades of popular music, particularly the late 80s, 90s and 00s. Examples of this include When X Came to Britain, Reel Stories or The Story of Top of the Pops. As with our premium documentaries, we want to see stories told in new ways rather than genre-retrospectives. How can you tell distinctive stories that resonate outside of a genre or artists’ immediate fanbase?

We’d like to see shows that could help our slate break into new parts of the linear schedule and which take a range of different forms: from investigative journalism to observational music documentaries or even comedy. Think about how we can reach as broad an audience as possible, including those who may not avidly consume music documentaries, but still love music.

Our commissioners and how to pitch ideas

Please send all ideas for popular factual TV content to Head of Popular Music Jonathan Rothery or Commissioning Executive Rachel Davies via the PiCoS submission system.

Please note that ideas for classical music content should be pitched via the contacts listed on the arts and classical music page.