Not wanting to pour cold water on some interesting ideas, this is mainly for Alan or anyone who is seriously thinking about trying to make some shows for broadcast.

You need to be aware that there are two basic approaches for getting programmes on the television - commissions and acquisitions.

To get a commission you need to

a) either pitch a show to an existing strand like BBC4 Sessions (or Later etc), in which case it must 'fit' with the designated brand, style etc of that strand (if it doesn't it won't be commissioned, full stop).

b) harder still, pitch a whole new strand - which means going further up the food chain for the commission, and you will have to make a reasoned and informed case for that strand in the schedule (this is a specialist skill with it's own rules).

In either case, if you're successful, (and then manage to retain ownership and control of your ideas) you'll get a realistic budget to make the shows - which, to do properly, could run to hundreds of thousands of UKP per hour (last series I did - long time ago now - was 350k per half hour - and we struggled to do it in within that). You'll need to think about crew costs, £2-5k per day single camera (broadcast standard kit is VERY expensive, as are the highly-skilled people who operate them) 10+ times that for a multi-camera location shoot like the xmas show, pre- and post-production, plus all your research and clearances and (a deal-breaker for many music shows) MU rates for ALL music-making participants.

The other option is an acquisition.

If you scrape together the kit and people to make a decent show AND the broadcasters decide that it does fit somewhere in their carefully researched and planned schedule, they may buy a singe or double transmission off you. Fee - about £5k if you're lucky. (They won't take it if you haven't paid MU rates etc and bought the necessary licences etc).

So the rule is, NEVER make shows on spec unless you have another outlet that's paying all the bills, or a chum with very very very deep pockets.

Tom