91Èȱ¬

Welcome to the 91Èȱ¬ Scotland commissioning page.

We are committed to working with and developing the best creative talent in the industry, commissioning content that reflects and engages our audiences and bringing Scotland to the rest of the UK and beyond. We work across 91Èȱ¬ Scotland tv channel, 91Èȱ¬ One Scotland, iPlayer, Radio Scotland and 91Èȱ¬ Sounds and we welcome ideas that can work across platforms and reach audiences wherever they consume media. We need ideas that stand out in a busy media environment, get people talking and reflect the diversity and the needs of our audience.

There are two main elements to our strategy – maintaining our strong performance on our linear services and growing our audience on iPlayer and Sounds.

On linear, we need habit forming content that we can play in long runs and returnable series so we can build brands. Titles on tv that are working for us include Scotland’s 91Èȱ¬ of the Year, A View from the Terrace and Beechgrove. We also need live moments where everyone can gather and celebrate – TRNSMT festival is a good example and sport continues to deliver big audiences - and topical content that reflects that mood of the nation like Debate Night.

On iPlayer, we are looking for high quality box set series, with standout title, talent and imagery across all genres. It’s a competitive space so these elements are all key to ensuring a prominent position on the platform. Recent iPlayer hits for 91Èȱ¬ Scotland have been Mayflies, The Ice Cream Wars and The Agency:Unfiltered, the latter of which brought in a young, underserved audience.

We are investing more in podcasts for 91Èȱ¬ Sounds over the next year and are keen to build on award winning titles like The Cruelty, Bible John: The Creation of a Serial Killer and launch new titles that have the format and returnability of Sacked in the Morning.

And please do think multiplatform. We would love to hear ideas that could start as a podcast and develop to tv. Or tv ideas with an accompanying podcast that could extend the audience consumption or bring a new audience to the title.

Alongside ideas that have resonance for audiences in Scotland, we continue to work closely with our network colleagues on the Commissioning UK strategy to bring through bigger ideas with 50/50 funding from 91Èȱ¬ Scotland and 91Èȱ¬ Content. We have significant targets across each genre and are looking for those ideas that can feel authentically rooted in Scotland but can also connect with audiences across the UK. In factual, some of our new crime series coming through are in this space, so now we are looking for the next big stories to tell from the world of crime and beyond. We are also looking for doc series with incredible access at their core and are interested in new innovative ways of telling historical stories. In drama, we have now completed the Guilt trilogy so what’s next in this space? And in comedy, we continue to look for a high quality 91Èȱ¬ One sitcom.

Please do bring big, high impact ideas to us and we can help navigate and champion for Scotland.

You can find more detail on our current opportunities across the genres on the commissioner profile pages, below. It’s rolling commissioning and we use PiCoS so please do reach out to the commissioners with your ideas.

Finally, we are always keen to explore working in partnership and collaboration with other organisations. Proposals that have other finance attached or that have the potential to bring in other funders are also attractive.

Thank you for your interest in working with us.

Best wishes,

Louise Thornton, Head of Commissioning

New Opportunities

91Èȱ¬ Content, 91Èȱ¬ Scotland and Screen Scotland are seeking ideas from production companies located in Scotland for unscripted network shows in factual entertainment and history.  Please follow the link to the briefs below:

History opportunity: /commissioning/history-scotland-development-opportunity-november-2023 

Submissions have now closed.

Factual Entertainment opportunity: /commissioning/factual-entertainment-scotland-development-opportunity-november-2023 

Submissions have now closed.

Our Lives

The 91Èȱ¬ One strand Our Lives returns in 2024 and we will be commissioning up to 3 half hour films from Scotland. Some of the key things we look for are stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and films that get us around Scotland and have a real sense of place. These films should be able to appeal across the UK but have strong and authentic Scottish portrayal. The films are generally character led with one main protagonist and a small group of supporting characters but this is not the only approach we would consider.

In the last run 2 of our 3 films were made by emerging directing talent and we welcome ideas from up and coming as well as established talent again.

Submissions have now closed.