Sport+ Audio Lead

Package Description

Job Reference: 23580

Band: D

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Office Base is Salford

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits - We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the [email protected]  For any general queries, please contact: [email protected].

Job Introduction

The Sport+ Audio Lead will report to the Sport+ Editor and be responsible for driving the development of compelling, story-driven, evergreen sports narrative podcasts.  Working with the Sport+ long form content gathering team to identify the strongest audio opportunities for audiences. This role requires a strong background in journalism, audio production, storytelling, researching, and script development. You will need a deep understanding of sport, it’s history and culture.

Main Responsibilities

• Oversee the development of fresh and exciting narrative podcast ideas.
• Develop storylines and identify potential projects to carry forward to pitching.
• Engage with BBC Audiences Team to understand evolving trends and audience needs.
• Be an integral link between Sport+ and BBC Sounds and 5 Live Commissioning Executives, leading on pitching new ideas.
• Maintain close communication and a strong working relationship with the BBC Sport Audio and 5 Live team on the planning of all Sport+ audio content.
• Oversee all audio scripts and productions.
• Secure presenters, guests and journalists to lead narrative podcasts.
• Encourage and support producers to explore innovative storytelling techniques.
• Help shape narratives and refine scripts.
• Collaborate with Sport+ colleagues on development of all ideas and identify audio opportunities aligned with written and video gathering.
• Responsible for complying all audio content produced by Sport+ and ensuring all content is accurate, error-free and meets high editorial standards.
• Maintain clear communication with the Sport+ Editor, Content Editor and the Production Manager on staffing plans and on all relevant costings.
• Track, analyse and review performance data on all Sport+ audio content.
• Help drive content reviews, learning lessons and striving to improve the quality and impact of our output.

Are you the right candidate?

• The ideal candidate will have a background in sports journalism and an impressive track record in narrative podcast production and delivering successful audio content.
• A strong journalistic background and writing skills, with experience of crafting compelling narratives.
• Experience in scripting, storyboarding, and structuring audio narratives.
• A high-level understanding of podcast production workflows, from pre-production to post-production.
• Proven experience of working to deadlines.
• Experience of managing budgets and multiple projects simultaneously, delivering on time and on budget.
• Strong network of contacts in sports media, journalism, and production.
• Familiarity with investigative storytelling and long-form narrative formats.
• Experience in handling internal and external stakeholder relationships.
• Proven experience in narrative podcast production, audio journalism, and audio documentary storytelling.
• Experience in managing research and production teams.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

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Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.