MUMBAI: BBC has commissioned a BBC Three drama strand exclusively for BBC iPlayer.

The drama strand is a venture between BBC iPlayer, BBC Three and BBC Drama Production to commission six original short films over two years, written and directed by the best up-and-coming writing and directing talent from across the UK.

This new drama strand builds on BBC iPlayer‘s strategy to showcase more exclusive content within the service in 2013 and on the BBC Writersroom‘s ongoing commitment to bring the best new writers to UK audiences.

Last year the BBC brought selected online-only programmes to audiences via BBC iPlayer. These included BBC Three ‘Feed My Funny‘ new talent comedy pilots, a Doctor Who mini-series called ‘Pond Life‘ and curated archive programmes for BBC Four. These proved popular on BBC iPlayer, with Pond Life receiving over five million requests, the BBC Three comedy pilots over one million requests and the BBC Four archive programmes receiving over 2 million cumulative requests.

BBC head of IPTV, TV online content Victoria Jaye said, "This ambitious new strand builds on BBC iPlayer as a creative platform to bring original British drama to audiences online, and explores storytelling outside of a scheduled TV slot or duration. Audiences will be able to discover, share and enjoy these dramas whenever and wherever they choose."

BBC Drama executive producer Hilary Salmon said, "This is a precious opportunity for BBC Drama Production to produce original content for the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Three audience and to build relationships with writing and directing talent that is on the way up."

BBC Three controller Zai Bennett said, "As a youth channel, BBC Three is at the forefront of new ways to commission and view programmes and to find up and coming talent both on and off the screen. This new drama strand is exactly the kind of venture BBC Three is all about."