Current Pitching Opportunities

BBC World Service Commisioning

We work with reporters and producers on 30 and 60 minute features for The Documentary, including Solutions Docs. At this time pitches are also being accepted for the following strands in this round: Witness History, In the Studio, and Heart and Soul. Written In Air is also interested in supporting podcast and series ideas for World of Secrets.

If you are not familiar with these programmes you can learn more about them from through clicking the preceding links or read more about these editorial opportunities here. To learn more about what types of stories and ideas we are interested in collaborating on, check out the pitch callout for this round from our most recent newsletter.

Our company is committed to working with veteran audio producers, new audio makers. We also encourage freelance journalists and writers who may not have audio production experience to send in ideas that we can help support.

Check out this year’s commissioning brief, or listen to some pieces Written In Air released with the World Service

The Documentary — The Dogs of Palermo

The Documentary — Birding the Gender gap

Witness History — The Capitol Crawl

NEW FOR THIS YEAR
This year we are capped at submitting ten (10) ideas to the network for each category, which means we won’t be able to put forward and support as many projects as we have in previous rounds. That said, we encourage you to only share your strongest, most developed ideas at this time.

🗓️The deadline for pitching Written In Air is 10 August 2026 @ 23:59 PM EST🗓️

📻 Please send any questions you may have to info@writteninair.com 📻

SOME PITCH GUIDELINES:

• You may submit up to two (2) pitches per category. Only your first two submissions for each category will be reviewed. We may suggest moving ideas to different categories.

• Pitches should be written as two paragraphs only. Pitches should be 250–400 words total. Anything above or below those parameters will not be reviewed.

•The exception is pitches for World of Secrets. These write-ups should include a both a synopsis and episode outline that, combined, are no longer than a single page of A4 (that’s somewhere between 1,500–3,000 words).

• Do not pitch multi-part documentaries. Everything aside from World of Secrets only accepts ideas for single episodes. If you have an idea for a two- or three- or four-part doc, it might be best to submit that as 60-minute documentary.

• Pitches clearly written by AI will rejected. We work with humans the heart, not robots.

Submitting a pitch is not considered a transfer of ownership.

⬇️ Pitches will only be accepted via this form ⬇️