For Producers

Take a journey every Thursday night as DOC ZONE explores the major stories of our time. Around the corner, around the world, our cameras bring viewers to the centre of the events everyone is talking about. From the transformation of China to the battle for the Arctic, if it's on agenda it's on DOC ZONE. Informed, adventurous and curious, DOC ZONE presents a sweeping panoramic view of what matters most to Canadians.

Story Selection Criteria

Doc Zone is current, on-agenda, and international in scope. It transports the viewer to the major newsfronts of the day, and inside the forces and trends that shape our generation. Its story mandate is broad: from the state of the American empire to how to divorce and not wreck the kids, to a portrait of the RCMP at a crossroads and the decline in male birthrates. The story is active, evolving and touches our lives.

Doc Zone is intelligent and edgy, but at all times its stories must be accessible, popular and pertinent to a broad prime-time audience. It strives the engage the viewers' sense of wonder, adventure and curiosity. It is surprising, exotic, challenging and world-wide in scope.

Although it is a diverse in its subjects it is unified in style. Doc Zone's style is a briskly- paced well-written journalistic narrative that always seeks the human drama, and builds around human stories. Doc Zone has a single presenter who narrates each episode and it follows a multi-act dramatic documentary structure.

Doc Zone episodes are all originally produced for the series, drawing on the best staff and independent documentary producers and directors.

Submissions to Doc Zone

Your proposal should be as complete as possible, and should clearly outline story focus, themes and characters. Each proposal should be accompanied by information about your creative team, production company, and if possible, financing structure. If there is interest in your proposal, you may be asked for additional information. We will respond within 4-6 weeks.

All submissions should be emailed to: doczone@cbc.ca

Please include your submission release form at that time. The form can be found on the Independent Producers web site.

A hard copy can also be forwarded to:
DOC ZONE
CBC Independent Documentary
Unit 205 Wellington St. W.
Toronto, ON
M5V 3G7
Fax: 416-205-8842

Funding

The CBC pays a license fee which is a percentage of the approved budget. This license fee will trigger the various funding agencies and other sources of financing available to producers across Canada. We do not participate in projects that have non-broadcaster financial backing.

Co-Production

Normally, we are the first window broadcaster. We engage in productions with independent Canadian producers in conjunction with the Canadian Media Fund. The CMF has provisions for international co-productions, so occasionally we do engage in international co-productions subject to the quality of the story, DOC ZONE requirements, the production personnel and the relevance to our viewers.

HD

DOC ZONE is the flagship documentary series of CBC Television. As such we require the highest technical standards. All documentaries are expected to be shot in High Definition. Our typical production window is 6 months to a year, but timely subjects may require a quicker turnaround.

2010-2011 Season

DOC ZONE airs Thursday nights at 9 on CBC Television, and is also aired on CBC News Network. The series features both independently produced documentaries and CBC in-house productions. See a list of our current productions.