Following yesterday’s annual general meeting, CBC hosted a panel about how to pitch to the public broadcaster as part of its CBC Live afternoon program.

The panel, which included the pubcaster’s executive director, radio and audio, Chris Boyce, Sandra Kleinfeld, director of development, studio and unscripted content, Mr. D writer-actor-producer Gerry Dee,  and CBC Radio’s How to Do It hosts Sarah Treleaven and Josh Bloch, reached a consensus that wasn’t a shocker: a successful pitch takes more than just a good idea.

Here’s are the panel’s top four tips:

• Do your homework: Make sure the concept fits into the schedule of the network being pitched. Further, does the idea fit into an existing CBC program, or is it something that it’s missing and is complementary to the schedule’s program? Kleinfeld said that the CBC’s independent producers website is a good resource for all programming genres that indie producers should refer to when creating a focused and appropriate pitch.
• Establish credibility: The execs conceded that it’s sometimes more difficult to assess a producer who doesn’t have industry experience or with whom they haven’t worked before, so they look for ability to execute the idea. Use the pitch to demonstrate experience, whether it’s producing, line-editing or writing previous projects. “You don’t have to be a household name, but when you’re pitching, give some thought to how to give us confidence that you can pull of what you say you’re going to,” said Boyce.
• Develop the idea beyond the initial spark: Include details like how characters will interact and where the conflict is – a pitch that clearly expresses the idea and frames the concept. That said, Boyce added that a pitch doesn’t have to be at the final development stages, either. “I would not encourage anyone to spend months of their life working through the idea to the final execution stage, because there is almost no show that I’ve ever developed that ended up on the air in the same form that was pitched.” So that means to avoid submitting 25-page research reports, Kleinfeld said, adding that the unscripted department usually looks for a one-to-two page description of the show.
• Be prepared for what Boyce calls “the production development funnel”: “The number of pitches received versus the number of things that go on the air, it’s almost an exponential difference between them,” said Boyce. He said that of the hundreds of pitches the CBC receives, the execs start low-level development with about 50 of them, to flesh out ideas with producers. Of that 50, around 20 get to pilot stage, and eight make it on-air for a 10-week run in the summer. And only one or two have a life past the first year. In unscripted, Kleinfeld said approximately five percent of pitches are developed, and 1 to 2% make it to air, adding that about 50% of the unscripted programming at the CBC comes from independent producers.

Both Boyce and Kleinfeld said their departments reply to and provide feedback on every pitch they receive.

Since the panel didn’t discuss the scripted pitch process, Playback asked Sally Catto, executive director of commissioned and scripted programming, for some input on pitching for primetime. Stay tuned for part 2 this afternoon.