PiCoS is the brand new, in-house system that consolidates Radio and TV content pitching and commissioning in one place. It’s tailored to enhance creative collaboration, enable the continued delivery of high-impact content to audiences and make the end-to-end content creation process more efficient and collaborative for everyone involved.
When will PiCoS go live?
PiCoS is now live for TV users. Pitch closed on Friday 8th March 2024 and all submissions have been migrated over to the PiCoS System. If you’re pitching for audio, PiCoS will go live for new audio rounds from Monday 1st April 2024 on a network-by-network basis. Please follow the instructions on the commissioning brief on the radio commissioning website for which system you should be using, or contact picos.support@bbc.co.uk if you are unsure.
Accessing PiCoS
You will access PiCoS via Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Login. If you already have a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Login account you will not need to set this up again and will be sent instructions on how to access the new system. You may have used Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Login to access systems such as MyDevelopment or Compliance Manager.
If you do not yet have a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Login account you will be sent an email from no-reply.bbclogin@bbc.co.uk with instructions on how to set one up. It may be worth checking your junk or spam folders if you don’t receive this. Once you receive this email you have seven days to action it. Once you have set up a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Login account you will receive another email when you have been granted access to PiCoS. If you need help with setting up your Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Login account you can find and download more guidance here.
Any Pitch or Proteus account that hasn’t been used in the last two years will not automatically be migrated to PiCoS. If you don’t receive an email and require access to PiCoS, please contact picos.support@bbc.co.uk.
Data migration
All proposals submitted before the migration date have been transferred over to PiCoS. Existing active suppliers and users have also been migrated.
Training and support
PiCoS is designed to be intuitive and easy to use. Helpcards and a training video are available to support you as you get started in PiCoS.
Any questions?
We’ll be in touch with all active users before the launch with the latest updates. If there are any additional questions, please contact us at picos.support@bbc.co.uk.
Helpcards
Creating and submitting an idea on PiCoS video
Hello and welcome. This video is going to cover how to create and submit an idea on PCOS for commissioning with no closing date deadline. If you need any assistance with your login, accessing PCOS, or are submitting to a commissioning round with a closing date, please check the other videos and help cards. So let's get started.
I'm already logged in and can see the 'Create New Proposal' button on the dashboard. so I'll click on that to begin. The options you'll see on this first screen will depend on whether you're registered as a TV or as an audio supplier.
For those users who are both, you can make your selection here at the top left of the screen using these tabs. The next options will be revealed once I've made the choice. As I'm already on the Audio tab, I can then just pick which network I want to submit to and continue making choices from there.
But first I'll go back and pick TV. We're going to start with the TV proposal. First select either Nations or Network. Just like before these options depend on your permissions, so there are some users who will only see nations. That's fine, this is linked to your eligibility.
I'm going to pick TV Network. Next, I can select a genre team, and then a genre, and click the Next button. button. After this, we can see all the opportunities available for pitching according to the selections we've already made.
Radio users, you'll be choosing your commissioning brief at this point, and TV users will be able to select which commissioning editor you want to pitch to. You can only pick one at a time. Once you've clicked on Pitch, you'll see a summary page, so you're ready to pitch.
You can double check all these selections are correct before continuing. On the left hand side is a Progress Tracker so you can see where you are up to. Click on the Start button to get going and you see on the left hand side Tracker the Create a Proposal step is now highlighted.
Now you can add all the key information about your program idea. I'm going to add my sample program idea so you can see. For the short and long proposal or synopsis, I'm going to paste in a document I prepared earlier just using simple copy and paste. I'm pasting from notepad, but you can use Word if you prefer. I can add some formatting if I want to. There's simple formatting here.
Next I can add information about talent or contributors. If I tick yes I will see the contributor fields relevant to the genre so if I'd selected drama earlier instead of factual, I would have more talent fields. More can be added if required. Please note these aren't compulsory and you can both save and submit a proposal without these filled in, if they're not relevant for you.
Next we add a duration and you can just type in here and it will format it for you. So if I typed in 1H and click away, it will format it to one hour. Similarly, if I type in, let's say 28M, that will format it to 28 minutes. Next, select a program type. Please note, if you select series here, you'll also need to add the number of episodes. At this point for TV, drama, entertainment and comedy there'll also be an extra tick box here to select pre or post watershed.
TV users please add the channel here and you can choose TBC if you're not sure. Other fields may be displayed to on the channel you select. For example, if I choose one of the children's channels, I'll need to also select age range and animation type. For co -production, if you click yes, there's a free text field to type at your partner company name, if needed.
The next section is diversity and inclusion, and there's a link right here so that you can look up more information about what is expected. In the near future, the company leadership information will auto -populate from your D &I company leadership questionnaire, but for now, we'll fill it in manually. It is okay to put not known at this stage.
If you have checked Yes to Diverse Story or Pro -Trail, there will be an extra field for you to fill in to give more explanation on that. After I have submitted the proposal, I will receive an email to confirm receipt and for future updates to the status. It just shows my email address here that these emails will be addressed to. If you don't receive an email, please check your junk folder.
Next, there's an optional notes field in case you need to add anything extra for the commissioning team. You can copy text in there if you happen to have some prepared, but unlike the synopsis, it doesn't have any formatting buttons.
We then need to tick yes to accepting the terms and conditions and this is a link you can click on to view the full document. So I click on the button additional information in order to continue.
On this screen you can add supporting information or upload a file such as a script. At the moment the option is a PDF maximum of 50 megabytes, but in future more file types such as audio and video options will be available. Of course you don't need to add anything. In the notes field you can add extra info such as links or if any hard copy material has been sent to the commissioners, please note this here.
It's now ready to review and then submit. However, if I need to, for some reason, go away and come back to it, such as I want to attach a document that's not ready yet, I can click on Save as Draft. This is now saved within the system and is available for my colleagues to view. If I have to go and do something else or even log off, I can still find my proposal again. It's back on our proposal list here. I can select it to reopen and continue working on it or just click directly on the Edit option here on the right -hand side.
I can make any updates required. Please remember, at the bottom, on the 'Click the Terms and Conditions' box again and from there continue back to the additional information page.
Now I'm going to attach my PDF. Then I click on Review, which is the final chance to read over everything once more before I submit. I'm now logged in as a radio producer in order to show you a few differences when submitting to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio or Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds.
This time, I'm pitching to a specific opportunity organised by Network, Round and Brief, instead of genre and commissioner as we've seen earlier in the video. Most of this is much the same as we've already seen, with a few differences. For some radio proposals, you may be required to include eligibility notes on your production experience relevant to the programme idea you were pitching.
Networks will ask for this in the ComBrief document. After the proposal texts you can see there are different contributor boxes to fill in here. For the earliest delivery date please check the commissioning guidelines to see if the commissioning team have a preference for how to fill this in. There's a risk management question and Radio also have an extra question in the diversity section on diverse production leadership.
Further down under Budget, the commissioning brief will have a guide price, but there's also a box for you to fill in an alternative if you need to. Finally, you can nominate an additional person to be included on email notifications regarding this proposal, providing you have their permission. Like TV users, I would need to tick the terms and conditions box and then go to additional information to continue.
I'm now back to where we left off the final review of our sample TV proposal where I can make any final amendments using these edit section buttons before scrolling right to the bottom where I can submit. The submit process is the same for radio independent. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Production Departments will still have a two -stage submission process, similar to how it works on Proteus.
And that's it. The proposal has now been submitted to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Commissioning Team for consideration. You will receive an email confirmation. Now I can go back to my proposal list where I can see the proposal is now at no decision status and will remain so until a commissioning editor changes it.
If I need to make any further edits, I would need to withdraw it using this action button on the right to edit and then re-submit.
Related links (Welsh version)
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PiCoS i gyflenwyr PiCoS yw’r system fewnol newydd sbon sy’n cyfuno’r prosesau cynnig a chomisiynu cynnwys Radio a Theledu mewn un lle.