BBC Radio & Music Indie Development Fund
Following the success of the inaugural year of BBC Radio Indie Development Fund, BBC has today confirmed the next batch of its recipients.
The £250,000 fund is allocated to back talented indies to develop in certain areas of their work, supporting the BBC’s priorities, including increasing diversity and content from all parts of the UK, allowing the BBC to better reflect, represent and serve all audiences.
The production companies come from each of the four nations of the UK, with majority receiving funding for the first time. Successful applicants receive a one-year investment of between £10-£25k, and the funding will go towards a variety of areas, ranging from increasing and diversifying the talent pool to boosting production capabilities and training. They are also allocated a mentor who they will work with to agree objectives and meet regularly for support and guidance.
For music radio, three of the indies are based in the Midlands, with True Thought and Glenvale receiving funding for the second year. As the BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio 1Xtra increase their presence in Birmingham, Glenvale will continue its relationship with the Asian Network after a successful first year and use the fund to set up a talent pool of assistant producers. Having partnered with BBC Sounds last year, True Thought will this year work with Midlands universities to recruit trainee production talent and partner with Radio 1Xtra to generate ideas to reflect the Midlands music scene.
Moving Water Media received funding towards employing a local assistant producer to help develop fresh editorial ideas as well as invest in production equipment.
Kully Ghataore, Moving Water Media, said: "The Midlands is a thriving hub of talent, and as a production company based in the region, we are grateful to have secured funding that will fuel our growth as an independent entity. This support will undoubtedly contribute to our journey in bringing creative visions to life."
Lorna Clarke, BBC Director of Music said: “As more of our content comes from Birmingham, Cardiff and Salford, it’s great to be working with these brilliant local indies to boost the production capabilities in the areas, and at the same time supporting the BBC’s key priorities around diversity and our Across the UK plans.”
For music, the recipients are:
- Glenvale Media – Birmingham
- True Thought Production – Birmingham
- Moving Water Media – Wolverhampton
- Unedited – London
- Overcoat Media – Cardiff
- Reform Radio – Manchester
For speech audio, all recipients are new to the fund. They’re based in all the four nations of the UK and will be working with BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live.
Bespoken Media, based in Edinburgh, will hire a trainee producer for 12 months to help build and service a pipeline of talent from Scotland.
Dave Howard, Bespoken Media said: “Bespoken Media is committed to helping to build a strong, inclusive and flourishing audio production community in Scotland. This support, financially but more importantly in terms of creative mentorship from Radio 4's commissioning team, will go a long way to helping us to do that. We look forward to getting started!”
Mohit Bakaya, BBC Director of Speech said: “We specifically wanted ideas that would help us build up the pool of diverse new talent to bring us great stories from all corners of the UK. We had an impressive set of submissions, and we are looking forward to working with this year’s recipients as part of our plans to make BBC’s speech radio more representative of the country as a whole.”
For speech, recipients are:
- Bespoken Media - Edinburgh
- The Foghorn Productions - Belfast
- Little Wander - Brecon
- Hill 5.14 Media - Bedfordshire
- Essential Radio - London
- Bite Your Tongue Productions – Bristol
- Bengo Media - Cardiff
The BBC’s Across the UK strategy is to move creative spend and decision-making across the UK to better reflect, represent, and serve all parts of the country. For radio, this means increasing network and music spend outside London to 50% by moving teams and programmes. The BBC Asian Network will have a single base in Birmingham, and BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music will be rooted in Salford. From January 2024, BBC Radio 1Xtra will be broadcasting entirely from outside of London between10am – 4pm every weekday as Dj Day Day joins the network with his new show from Birmingham, and earlier this year, BBC Radio 2 launched its first daily weekday programme to broadcast outside of London; Owain Wyn Evans’ new Early Breakfast Show from Cardiff. From January, Huw Stephens will also be broadcasting his brand-new BBC 6 Music show from Cardiff, and BBC Radio 1 has been broadcasting live from Salford seven days a week since 2022. BBC Radio 5 Live launched its new Sunday evening show with Gordon Smart from Glasgow, and Patrick Kielty’s show now comes live from Belfast. BBC Audio created a new production hub in Wales and Bristol last year, and from April 2024, a new network production hub in Scotland and Northern Ireland will produce a range of content for BBC Radio, including 50 episodes of Radio 4’s flagship arts programme Front Row from Scotland, and Radio 4’s Pick of the Week from Belfast.
Strategic ambitions by area:
POP
With the Asian Network’s continued RCF show moves to Birmingham, alongside other programming from Radio 1Xtra, the Pop Networks would like to continue to nurture teams and individuals based in and around the West Midlands in a bid to use the IDF to develop a strong audio production talent base. We will look to engage with suppliers who might be interested in broadening their audio production portfolio, or maybe new starters who have a knowledge or interest in the output of Asian Network or Radio 1Xtra. But ultimately those that could bring a truly ‘local’ insight to programming across the two stations.
RADIO 3
We are inviting bids from companies with a commitment to increasing diversity in their production teams - with a view to delivering creative and exciting classical music programmes for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds. We’re looking to support partnerships and development projects around production diversity with both independent production companies who are new to Radio 3 and those who already work on classical music output with the station and on BBC Sounds.
RADIO 4
We want our Radio 4 audience to hear stories from every part of the UK. We’re inviting bids from suppliers who would use the fund to create traineeships for diverse new talent to bring us authentic stories from under represented communities. We particularly welcome applications from areas of the country currently underrepresented in the industry - for example Norther Ireland and Scotland. Your work may focus on factual storytelling, or comedy, or drama.
5 LIVE
5 Live are looking to work with new and developing indies who have interest and expertise in reach audiences new to the BBC, particularly for on-demand content. We are looking to attract audiences who are weekly podcast listeners who don’t currently have a habit with BBC Sounds. 5 Live are looking for bold and talkable commissions that address gaps in our slate and appeal beyond our core audience, appealing to listeners who may be younger, live across the UK and are diverse in its widest sense.