Broadcasting House

Charging policy and Radio Resources (RR) charges

The following terms of trade are in addition to the BBC’s standard terms and conditions and are valid from 1st April 2003 until further notice.

RR is a ‘break even’ business; we size our resource base to fit the levels of activity that we need to deliver to R&M and, knowing the cost of employing the right number of staff and running the right number of studios and Outside Broadcast (OB) vehicles, we derive hourly and annual rates to achieve break even.

Making a booking – what you will be charged for

Facility and staff for the duration of your booking.

This can be:-
• a charge from Radio Resources on a Pay as You Use basis
• an internal departmental charge where longer-term agreements allow priority access to facilities e.g. R3 and B14, Radio Factual and B6.
Please consult your local finance team to see how the cost will be passed on to your programme code.

Rig time – eg. Lining-up studio, placing microphones, establishing circuits etc

Rigging time varies but may take up to 15 minutes for a complex GP studio session. The rig time will be incorporated into your overall booking time but you should not expect to start any recording activity until the rig has been properly completed. Our Operations managers can advise asappropriate.

Where bookings need a significant amount of preparation we will need to make an additional charge for the time,
e.g. script reading and special effects collection for drama, planning time for outside broadcasts and studio manager production liaison time.

Travel

When our staff are required to work away from base the travel time and expenses incurred will be charged on.

In addition when any booking needs the member of staff to start work before 0630 or to finish work after 2245, the cost of Late Night or Early morning transport will be charged on to the production.

Minimum booking time

RR reserves the right to charge for a minimum of four hours where we need to bring in staff specifically to cover a short booking.

RR reserves the right to charge for a minimum of eight hours where there is significant travel time to a location.
Where staff are freely available to cover a booking the minimum duration for a booking and chargeable time is 30 minutes.

Outside Broadcasts

When undertaking an OB you will be charged for
• Hire of all technical facilities including transport and equipment
• Recording material and consumables
• Hired-in services
• All associated cash costs e.g. Parking permits, excess baggage/airline costs, ferry charges, freight costs, security.

Studios

Included in the price
• All technical equipment normally installed in the area.
• Access to practical (MV6) and recorded sound effects.
• 24 hour maintenance engineering support (on-site support at Maida Vale available from 0900 - 2200 when necessary).
• National telephone calls.

Not included
• Recording materials or other consumables.
• Additional equipment over and above normal technical specification. Extra equipment can be supplied at additional cost.
• Non-maintenance engineering effort, eg. installing extra out-board kit.
• International calls.
• ISDN calls and broadcast communication costs.

Cancellations

If you need to cancel a studio/SM booking, no charges will be passed on unless the booking is less than 7 days away. If no other programme maker can make use of the studio or SM time then we’ll process the booking charges as follows;

• 7 to 3 days notice 50% of the un-used booking charge.
• 2 to 0 days notice 100% of the un-used booking charge.

If you need to cancel an OB then costs associated with hired-in equipment that the BBC is committed to will be passed on.

Practical and Recorded Sound Effects

Sound FX are available at no extra charge for customers who also book RR staff.

It is possible for customers who don’t book RR staff to use the BBC’s practical and recorded sound effects but you will be charged for the effects plus delivery. Price on application. Contact us

Dry Hire - hire of facilities without RR staff

For studio bookings without a Radio Resources studio manager we require:

• Written confirmation of the technical capability of the studio manager.
• Written confirmation of the hirer's £2m limited liability insurance.
• A programme risk assessment provided by the hirer.

We require a Radio Resources representative to carry out a safety briefing at the start of the booking (this will incur a separate charge). However it is important to note that the producer must remain responsible for safety throughout the booking.

Methods of Payment

Radio Resources accept the following methods of payment:

For BBC internal bookings:

• SAP Cost Codes
• SAP WBS Numbers

For non-BBC bookings:

• Visa, Mastercard.
• Cheques made payable to "BBC"

We also offer account facilities (subject to credit references). For further information please contact us.

Hints and tips for making a booking

Rig/de-rig and equipment collecion
When booking studios or studio managers remember to allow enough time at the start and end for studio line-up and the collection of any recording materials and additional booked equipment.

We advise you to allow 15 rig and de-rig time for GP-type bookings, although some very simple bookings will not need this. We will incorporate this into the overall duration of your booking. The Operations Manager for your studio manager team can advise on times for more complex rigs.

Block bookings
Where possible we encourage block bookings i.e. a sequence of sessions. This is especially useful for regular transmissions to ensure availability.

Radio Resources reserves the right to decline booking requests for staff to work in non-technical areas or non-BBC facilities.

Digital editing
During digital editing sessions studio managers must take regular screen breaks in accordance with DSE regulations (minimum recommended screen break is 10 minutes for every hour of computer use) – Although other activity can be undertaken in this time, you will need to factor this into the amount of time and the way you plan your session.

Over-runs
To honour commitments to all programme makers and our staff, Radio Resources need bookings to finish on time. As some circumstances mean this may not always be possible, the studio manager will check that the studio is available and that they themselves can over-run, before continuing. If overruns become more than one-off occurrences then we'll work with you to decide on more suitable studio times.

Meal breaks
For bookings of six hours or more, Radio Resources give staff a one hour meal break. Six hours without a break should be considered exceptional. Breaks should be scheduled to deliver maximum benefit, ie. mid way through a booking and where possible and to coincide with normal eating times.

If by agreement, with the studio managers, a meal break is not taken during a booking of six hours or more then an extra hour will be added to the end of the booking and charged. Normally you'll not be charged for staff or studio during a planned meal break.