BBC, Directors UK draw up bill of rights for directors

The BBC and Directors UK have partnered to firm up the rights of directors working on BBC-in house productions.

Details of the new partnership are outlined in two documents – one for drama and one for factual programmes – that set out the detailed roles and responsibilities for directors. These include:

· Affirming the directors’ copyright in their programmes.

· Setting out the requirement for advance disclosure and consultation on key creative elements and key production information – budgets, schedules, key personnel, scripts and casting (for fiction), contributors (for factual) – to ensure the director is sufficiently well-briefed to understand the commission and lead the team in delivering it.

· Setting out the directors’ rights and responsibilities through all the stages of production and post-production, including the exclusive right to make an uninterrupted first cut.

· Options for the director to create re-versions and re-edits.

· Options for the director of pilots/first series to direct further series.

· Rights to programme credits.

The two are also expected to co-operate on a number of initiatives to support the career skills and talent development of UK directors. 

Directors UK chair Charles Sturridge said: ”The BBC and Directors UK have redefined the creative relationship between directors and the BBC. Setting out a new and powerful partnership that recognises the central role of the director in every programme and every genre that the BBC produces. This agreement ensures that directors in partnership with other creatives can continue to make remarkable, original and innovative television.”

BBC director-general Mark Thompson added: “I’m delighted that the BBC and Directors UK have committed to this partnership which represents a sustainable and contemporary relationship between BBC production and the directing community. We recognise that directors are pivotal to delivering our output and place importance on growing this relationship in an engaging and meaningful way.”