Development opportunity: The Northern Star Project

Five major European broadcasters – the BBC (UK), DR (Denmark), NPO (Netherlands), NRK (Norway), and VRT (Flanders) - have come together as The Northern Star Project, to find new children’s scripted drama series that speak authentically to all young northern European viewers, regardless of their home country.

Three successful ideas will be co-developed by one of the lead broadcasters, with funding and input from all five.

After two funded development phases, successful ideas will be considered for full series commission, with the lead broadcaster anticipated to be the National broadcaster of the country where the supplier is based. Other participating broadcasters will then have the option to licence the programme for their local markets.

Editorial ambition

All five broadcasters share the same editorial goals for the series ideas they develop. Ideas should:

• be aimed at target audiences of ages 7-9 or 10-12
• be multiple episodes of 30 minutes duration or less, with the aim of ultimately commissioning series of 150 – 240 minutes total
• employ innovative ways of storytelling and deploying new technologies to make the content relevant, truly sharable, engaging and culturally idiomatic to all five markets
• tell stories with relatable characters to reflect the challenges and thrills of being a young person today
• entertain today’s youth with content that wins eyeballs in an ever-increasingly competitive space
• represent all young people on-screen, and to make inclusive television using a diverse cast, crew and other talent
• be platform-agnostic ‘television’ - for linear broadcast, streaming and other online video platforms

Eligibility criteria 

This opportunity is open for applications from independent production companies with a base in the UK, Norway, Flanders, Netherlands or Denmark.

UK submissions must:

• be from an independent production company with experience producing scripted content for broadcast or streaming in the last five years
• be registered at Companies House
• have a diversity and inclusion policy in place and adhere to the BBC Diversity Commissioning Code of Practice. If you do not currently have a diversity and inclusion policy in place then a template is available from the Creative Diversity Network

Companies must own all rights (“Intellectual Property”) in the idea including the full rights and permissions in any underlying work such as the characters and the format, including linear, streaming and YouTube rights, and rights based on existing IP must already be held by the production company.

Ideas must not be in development or under consideration with another broadcaster or content provider or have been previously considered by or developed with the BBC or other participating broadcasters.

How to submit ideas

The deadline for submissions is 2pm on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

• Ideas must be submitted via the BBC Uploader system
• Each company can submit up to three ideas initially
• Treatments must be written in English and be no more than three sides of A4 (text and images), and include information on the world, the story, the characters, volume and durations
• Please include the full address of the company
• Please include details of the broadcast content you’ve produced within the last five years demonstrating your eligibility for this opportunity

How we will assess initial submissions

• The BBC will collate submissions from the five participating territories and distribute them to the relevant National broadcasters
• Each broadcaster will review the ideas from their own supplier base and select an initial shortlist
• The shortlist will then be shared with other Northern Star partner broadcasters for their input on travelability and suitability of the ideas. This group will decide a shortlist of ten projects to come to an initial pitch
• Unfortunately, due to the high number of submissions we estimate we will receive, if you are unsuccessful we will not be able to provide feedback on your ideas

Development process

Shortlist and initial pitch

Ten projects will be shortlisted from the initial submissions. These companies will be invited to a 10-minute pitch meeting (online) with the Northern Star group in January 2027. The meeting will be split between a presentation of your idea and answering questions from the group.

Companies will be informed if they have been shortlisted to pitch in December 2026.

Stage one 

Up to three ideas total will be selected from the shortlist, each to receive up to the value of €20,000 development funding in local currency (approx. £10,413 at time of launch). We will then expect the producer to create a full series bible including, for example, key characters, series arc and two episodic synopses. These will be delivered within 12 weeks of signature of a development agreement.

Suppliers will co-own any development deliverables with the lead broadcaster, and from each stage of development the lead broadcaster will have an exclusive option to commission the idea for a period of nine months.

Stage two

The deliverables from stage one will then be considered for a full series commission by the Northern Star group, with possible additional paid development stages as required. Please note there is no guarantee that any or all of the ideas will be developed further or commissioned by any or all of the broadcasters.

If a commission is confirmed, Northern Star broadcasters will each issue Letters of Commitment (LOC) for the production financing and rights requirements.

Rights 

If an application is successful the creator will be required to enter into a Terms of Trade development agreement with the lead broadcaster in order to progress the development of their idea. The detailed terms will be shared with you before contracting for Stage one of the development process. Failure to agree terms at Stage one will bring your participation in Northern Star to an end.

Should your idea be commissioned for a full series, development funding will be deducted from the production budget.

If the Northern Star group chooses not to develop your idea further at any stage or chooses not to commission it:

• The lead broadcaster’s exclusive option to commission (see Stage one above) will end
• the lead broadcaster will assign you any ownership it has in the development deliverables
• if the idea is subsequently commissioned by a third party any development funding you receive from us (excluding the signature fee) will have to be repaid to the lead broadcaster no later than the first day of principal photography of the third party production.

By submitting your application, you will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these Terms and the Northern Star group reserves the right to exclude your application at any time and at its absolute discretion if the Northern Star group has reason to believe that you have breached these rules, acted fraudulently or have done anything which, in its sole discretion, brings any participating broadcaster into disrepute.

The Northern Star group reserves the right to amend these Terms. The Northern Star group reserves the right to cancel this project or alter any of the rules at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.

The Northern Star broadcasters, their subsidiaries, sub-contractors and/or agencies, cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem which may result in a submission not being properly submitted. To the extent permitted by law, the Northern Star broadcasters nor the others named above will not be liable for any loss or damage (whether such damage or losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise) including financial, reputational loss or disappointment.

We anticipate receiving a great number of proposals via this scheme as well as from our usual commissioning process. Similarities of subject matter often occur and we cannot undertake to compensate you if material similar to yours, received coincidentally from another source, is subsequently commissioned or produced.

This application process is administered by the BBC alongside its Northern Star partners.

If you have any questions that have not been answered by the information provided then please contact the Northern Star email address (listed below).

If you want to withdraw your submission, please email the Northern Star Project team.

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