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BBC Music taking pitches for iPlayer-based shows, keen to reach female viewers

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 21 September 2015

BBC Music is inviting pitches from independent programme makers for music-based one-off shows and series that will initially be made available via the Beeb’s iPlayer platform. The online shows will be short-to-medium form, in that programmes will be no longer than 20 minutes.

The Corporation says that it is particularly keen to commission music content that will bring in more female viewers. According to Broadcast, the commission brief says: “BBC Music TV output tends to draw more of a male audience and this is something we’re keen to redress”.

Which is an ambition that will be welcomed by those who criticised Global Radio for spinning its revamped version of new music channel Xfm as a blokey station for blokey listeners.

Though they might not appreciate the generalisation that follows in the BBC brief that “[women] have mainstream music tastes, are less lean-forward in their music-discovery and tend to be attracted to personality and human stories over an intellectual approach to music”. Basically, they don’t want music shows targeted at and presented by music nerds.

In other iPlayer-related news, increasingly speech-happy BBC chief geezer Tony Hall last week announced plans to launch a subscription-based video streaming service in the US via the Corporation’s commercial division BBC Worldwide.

The new subscription platform will likely make available BBC programmes not otherwise licensed to US networks or rival video-on-demand set-ups like Netflix and Amazon, making it more of niche service for Americans who particularly rate British telly shows.