The BBC Academy Podcast

Simon Smith and guests discuss the freelance lifestyle. To shed some light on this issue he is joined by Barney Newman, a freelance TV producer, David Thomas, who, after 22 years at the BBC set up a media business offering training in communication, broadcast and business skills. We also welcome back to the CoP Show Jude Winstanley, freelance production manager and creator of online jobs site The...

Emlyn Dodd, Richard Allinson and Phil Critchlow join Simon Smith in the studio to discuss the working relationship between presenters and producers of radio shows. Emlyn produces Scott Mills for Radio 1, Phil is founder of TBI media and vice chair of The Radio Independents Group and Richard is a presenter for BBC Radio 2.

Simon Smith discusses the pros and cons of rebranding with Jeff Anderson, editor of Watchdog and Mary Kalemkerian, head of programmes for Radio 4 Extra. And joining Simon down the line is Steven November, executive producer of ITV’s Emmerdale.

Simon Smith and guests discuss audience measurements for TV, radio and online content. Joining Simon are Jo Hamilton, head of Audience Measurement at the BBC, her colleague and senior planner Michaeljon Alexander-Scott, Matthew Clark, who looks after the online systems that measure the performance of the BBC website and iPlayer, and Paul Kennedy, research director at RAJAR.

Camilla Lewis, Dan Goldsack and Nicola Lees join Simon Smith to talk about getting ideas commissioned. Camilla is managing director at Cineflix UK, Dan is head of factual at Silver River and Nicola is a development producer, founder of TV Mole and author of Greenlit, a book about developing ideas from concept to pitch.

Former managing director of Talk Radio Paul Robinson, head of BBC Audio & Music's General Factual department Ruth Gardiner and Radio 1 DJ Greg James all join Simon Smith to talk about how to get into the world of radio.

Guests: Jude Winstanley, creator of The Unit List, Shu Richmond, author of blog, So You Want to Work in Television, Elsa Sharp, talent manager, & BBC talent manager Sarah Grout.

Amanda Lyon hosts a talk with Simon Chinn, producer of acclaimed film Man on Wire. Simon talks about his latest film Project Nim, a feature length documentary telling the controversial story of a chimp raised as a human child.

Simon Smith is joined by three experts in live TV and radio. Jo Tongue, executive producer of football phone-in 606 on Radio 5 live, Gareth Collett, deputy editor of The One Show and Lambing Live series producer Sarah Gibbs discuss what makes a great live broadcast and how to avoid the pitfalls.

How do producers find the right guests for their shows? And having got them on board what techniques do they use to get the most from them whether they are out-and-out exhibitionists, amateur chefs or vulnerable young people? To discuss casting contributors with Simon Smith is Izzy Fairbairn, a broadcast journalist and documentary maker for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, Jon Lloyd, series producer of Come Din...

How do producers persuade people to share their lives and secrets with the cameras? Jane Clancey discusses access with Roger Courtiour, producer of the recent Our War series on BBC Three, Steve Robinson series producer and creative director at Indus Films whose documentaries include Tribe with presenter Bruce Parry and Andrew Tait a BBC producer who’s been responsible for such works as Trouble in...

What can broadcasters do to make the best use of YouTube? Jane Clancey talks to Jamie Dolling from Google, the owners of YouTube, and the BBC’s Oran Soffair who adapts and publishes BBC content on YouTube.

Simon Smith and guests discuss location, location, location: finding them, getting access to them and balancing the dreams of your director against the reality of your budget. Guests are Andrew Cooke, Jane Soans and Neil Mac.

In this special edition of the CoP Show we talk to the producers behind the BBC Three documentary series Our War. Donna Taberer joins Colin Barr, executive producer of the show and John Douglas, producer/director of episode two, to discuss how they set about bringing the series to the screen.

The pleasures and pitfalls of using personal social media if you work in the media. Joining Simon Smith are Steve Bowbrick, Editor of About the BBC, Rowan Kerek Robertson, Interactive Lead, Social Media Exec for BBC Vision and Steve Saul, writer and social media producer.

Guests are Melanie Leach, M.D. at Twofour Broadcast, Richard Shaw, head of development + exec producer at Lion Television and Victoria Ashbourne, M.D. at Victory Television.

A simple definition of transmedia storytelling is a technique used to tell stories across multiple platforms: TV, radio, games, social media, online - anywhere a story can unfold.

To discuss the dos and don'ts of tapeless production, Jane Clancey is joined by Emma Riley of Mentorn and Sunset & Vine, Donna Mulvey Jones from Maverick Television and the BBC's production innovation executive, Rachel Joseph.

Jane Clancey and guests tackle the subject of Visualising Radio, explaining the why and how of this intriguing area.

Simon Smith and guests with some practical advice on using user centred design techniques. When designing a website or product for the web, a game or interactive application it’s very easy to think about your needs and not those of your users. In this episode we look at user focused design or how to make sure that what you build really works for the people you are making it for.

What are the differences between a digital team and a traditional broadcast team? What kind of skills and people do you need to build successful digital products? With Simon Smith to discuss building the perfect digital production team are guests Paul Bennun, director of digital at Somethin' Else, Dan Heaf, digital director BBC Worldwide Ltd and Katherine Campbell, senior content producer of Radio...

Simon Smith and guests discuss the practical techniques that content producers can use to build audiences. They look at examples of good social media practice, how to find your audience and then connect with the people who will influence them. Also under discussion is viral marketing, what works, what practical steps can be taken to make your content go viral and how to plan for when it all goes w...

Simon Smith brings us his report on transmedia storytelling from South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual music, film and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, Texas.

A mobile application, or app, is a downloadable piece of software that allows rich interaction with services and content via your mobile phone. As well as being complex and useful, apps can also be stupid, silly and fun. In this week’s CoP Show the rapidly growing mobile apps market is put under the microscope as host Simon Smith asks why you should or shouldn’t think about creating an app. Magnus...

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is used to improve the visibility of a website or web page in search engines via the 'natural' or unpaid search results. Very few of us look beyond the first few results we get from a search engine. The higher a site appears in the search results list, the more likely we are to click on it. So what are the tricks of the trade that content publishers use to lift pag...