Television and Factual Support in Nepal

Crew size and repeat visits matter here in ways they do not everywhere. Eight to twelve people changes vehicle counts, domestic flight bookings, lodge capacity on a trail and helicopter payloads. A returning series changes them again, because the same route in a different season is a different shoot. Permits are built around a named crew list, a kit list and a fixed set of locations and dates, so late changes mean amendments, and amendments cost time you may not have.

This page is about what factual television actually needs on the ground in Nepal: series and episodic logistics, presenters and contributors, fixed schedules across multiple locations, the permit process in outline, crew and kit, and how a returning or multi-location shoot is held together. It also tells you when a sequence in your outline will not work here, while there is still time to change it.

A factual production is not a single day with a camera. It is a format with a shape, a presenter or a set of contributors who carry the story, a run of sequences that has to be delivered in an order the edit can use, and a transmission date that does not move. Everything on the ground has to serve that, which is why the fixing job for television is wider than for a one-off shoot.

The difference shows up in three places. The first is compliance. A commissioned programme sits inside a broadcaster’s editorial and safety framework, and that framework asks questions before the shoot that a smaller job never faces: risk assessments, insurance wording, contributor consent, safeguarding, data handling. The second is continuity. A series wants the same look, the same access and often the same contributors across episodes and sometimes across years, and Nepal changes with the season, so continuity is something you plan for rather than assume. The third is the interaction between people, altitude and schedule, which is where factual formats most often overreach.

Our role is to hold the local reality against your plan. We coordinate permits, crew, transport, accommodation and access, we arrange the things a shoot needs day to day, and we tell you the truth about journey times, weather, altitude and what a location will and will not allow. We support the production. We do not produce your programme, we do not write your editorial and we do not sign off your safety. Those stay with you, and the page below is written so you can see exactly where the line sits.

An episodic commission multiplies every logistical decision by the number of episodes, and then adds the connections between them. A single film has one crew list, one kit list, one set of locations and one permit application shaped around them. A series has several, and they interact.

Start with the crew list, because permits are built on it. If your presenter and core crew are constant across episodes but specialists rotate in and out, the permit paperwork has to reflect who is actually in the country for each block, and a change of named personnel can mean an amendment rather than a note. Passport copies, roles and dates all attach to that list. Keeping it clean and current is not administrative tidiness, it is what keeps the applications moving.

Then there is the kit. A series often carries more than a single shoot, because it is trying to cover more situations, and the temporary import arrangement expects the same serialised items to leave that entered. If a series films in blocks with kit coming and going, each movement is its own customs event, so the boxes and the paperwork have to agree every time.

Accommodation and transport scale differently again. A crew of eight to twelve fills more than a single vehicle, can exceed the comfortable capacity of a small trail lodge in a single booking, and changes the payload maths on a helicopter. On a returning series, popular routes and lodges book up in the good seasons well ahead, so the earlier a block is fixed the more choice there is. Where episodes share locations, we hold continuity notes on access, contacts and conditions from one block to the next, so the second visit does not start from nothing.

Regulations here are revised and fees change, so treat the following as the shape of the system rather than a current rulebook. We confirm the present position, the forms and the process for your specific dates and locations before you commit them to a budget, and we do not quote permit fees or promise timelines, because both move.

There is normally a central filming permission for a commissioned production, applied for with a synopsis, crew list, passport copies, kit list, locations and dates, and a government liaison officer may be attached to the shoot. Visa category matters, and a tourist visa is generally not the right basis for a crew filming a commissioned programme. On top of that sit location layers. National parks and conservation areas including Sagarmatha, Chitwan, Bardia, Langtang and the Annapurna region require filming permission from the park authority as well as entry, and wildlife, vehicle-mounted and aerial work inside them is controlled separately. Heritage sites such as Pashupatinath, Boudhanath, Swayambhu and the Durbar Squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur are managed by the archaeology authority and by individual site trusts, and some interiors and rituals are not open to a camera at all.

Restricted areas including Upper Mustang, Upper Dolpo, Manaslu, Tsum and Humla carry their own permits, minimum group rules and liaison requirements, and must be arranged through a licensed local agency. Filming above base camp on a permitted peak is an expedition matter with its own royalty and conditions, not an extension of a film permit. Drones are the slowest and least predictable element: approval runs through civil aviation and home ministry channels plus the local district administration, with separate restrictions near airports, heritage sites, parks and security installations, and refusal is a realistic outcome.

The order matters because the applications are sequential, not parallel. Central permission generally needs locked locations, dates and lists before it can be filed, and park, heritage, restricted-area and drone approvals sit downstream of it. Design the programme so it still works without aerials, and send the outline as soon as it is stable so the slow elements can start moving.

Factual television usually rests on people. A presenter carries the narrative, or a set of contributors carries the subject, and the schedule has to protect their ability to perform, not just move them from location to location. In Nepal that means treating physiology and language as production issues, not afterthoughts.

For a presenter, the constraint is almost always altitude. A format that asks for a long scripted link delivered while walking uphill at 4,500 metres on day three will not deliver, whatever anyone’s fitness, because the presenter is breathless, cold and thinking slowly. Plan the demanding pieces to camera for after the acclimatisation days have been earned, write links that tolerate breathlessness and can be cut around, and be honest in prep about how much a presenter can actually carry at height. Whether a specific individual should attempt a given sequence at altitude is a medical decision, taken by your medical adviser on medical facts, before it goes into a script, not a scheduling call made on the day.

For contributors, the constraint is trust and understanding. The strongest factual material comes from people who know why the camera is there and what will happen to what they say, and that takes an interpreter who genuinely understands both the language and the intent, plus time to explain rather than rush. Contributors may be more comfortable in Sherpa, Tamang, Gurung, Magar, Newar, Tharu, Maithili or Bhojpuri than in Nepali, and a good approach respects that. Institutions matter too: access to a monastery, a temple or a community is granted by the institution, not by whoever happens to be present, and it is earned by asking properly and honouring what is refused. Build contributor time into the schedule as real time. Rushed contributors give thin material, and a relationship damaged by a pushy crew damages access for everyone who follows.

Expect requests for location-specific and activity-specific risk assessments, method statements for anything unusual, insurance certificates showing cover limits and territorial scope, evidence that local crew are insured, driver and vehicle standards, a medical and evacuation plan, a communications plan, your contributor consent process, safeguarding arrangements for anyone under 18 or otherwise vulnerable, and a plan for handling contributors’ personal data. For UK commissions this sits alongside the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and, at the BBC, editorial guidelines referrals for higher-risk work. Other broadcasters have their own equivalents, and the shape is similar even where the names differ.

Two things catch productions out. The first is insurance wording. Many production and travel policies exclude trekking above a stated altitude, exclude helicopter travel, or treat helicopter evacuation as a separate benefit requiring pre-authorisation before an aircraft moves. Read the schedule of adventurous activities and the altitude ceiling before the shoot is costed, not after somebody is unwell. The second is local crew welfare. Broadcasters increasingly ask what porters and field crew are paid, what loads they carry, what clothing and shelter they are given and whether they are insured. Have an answer, and have it in writing, because it is the kind of question that surfaces publicly if it is not settled privately first.

Our job is to supply the local facts your safety adviser needs: journey times rather than map distances, road and trail condition in your season, the altitude profile of the route, where medical facilities actually are and what they can realistically do, where mobile coverage stops, and who the local crew are. If your broadcaster uses its own risk assessment templates, send them and we will complete the Nepal-specific fields. What we will not do is write your risk assessment or sign off your safety plan. Those belong with your safety adviser and your production, and the distinction protects everyone.

Kathmandu sits at about 1,400 metres. Lukla is around 2,840. Namche is 3,440, Dingboche 4,410, Everest Base Camp 5,364 and Kala Patthar 5,545. Thorong La on the Annapurna Circuit is 5,416. Standard planning practice above roughly 3,000 metres is to gain no more than 300 to 500 metres of sleeping altitude a day, with a rest day every third or fourth day. That single rule is what turns a short line on a map into a schedule of a week or more, and it is usually the first thing a commissioning schedule fails to account for.

At around 5,500 metres the air holds roughly half the oxygen available at sea level, and it shows on screen. Presenters lose breath control mid-line, need more takes, sleep badly and make slower decisions. Camera and sound crew lose precision for the same reasons, and batteries lose capacity in the cold. There is no fitness level that removes this, only planning that respects it.

There are ways to design around it. Put the high sequences late in the schedule, after the acclimatisation days have been earned. Where the material genuinely calls for it, high second unit work can be done by crew who live at altitude and are already acclimatised. They are working professionals on your production, not a way of moving risk off it: same insurance, same clothing and shelter, agreed load limits and rates, and their names on the same crew list and risk assessment as everyone else. Write links that tolerate breathlessness and cut around it. Ask whether the picture you actually need exists lower down, because Mustang, the middle hills and viewpoints such as Poon Hill at 3,210 metres give scale at a fraction of the physiological cost. What we will not tell you is that a helicopter to 5,000 metres and straight back is a safe substitute for acclimatisation. Whether a particular person can do it is a medical decision, taken on medical facts, before the sequence goes into a script.

A release form written in English and signed by someone who does not read English is not informed consent, and it will not stand up if the programme is challenged. Nepali is the working language, but contributors may speak Sherpa, Tamang, Gurung, Magar, Newar, Tharu, Maithili or Bhojpuri first, and literacy varies widely, particularly among older rural contributors.

What works is a release translated into the contributor’s language, explained verbally by an interpreter who understands what the document actually says, with consent recorded on camera as well as on paper. Explain worldwide and online use in plain terms, explain repeats and clip use, and be explicit about payment or the absence of it, because a misunderstanding about money surfaces later and sometimes publicly. Record who interpreted, so the chain is documented. For anyone under 18 or otherwise vulnerable you need a named responsible adult, a chaperone arrangement and, where relevant, school or institutional permission.

Institutions matter as much as individuals. Filming inside monasteries and temples, or at cremation grounds such as those at Pashupatinath, needs permission from the institution rather than from whoever happens to be standing there, and some rituals and interiors will be refused. Asking again does not change the answer and it damages access for every crew that follows. Contributor passports, contact details and any medical information are personal data, so agree storage, transfer and deletion with your production office before the first shoot day. Consent on a factual programme is not a form to be collected, it is a relationship to be maintained, and on a returning series the contributors you filmed last year will remember exactly how they were treated.

October to early December gives the most reliable air clarity and the most stable flying. March to May is warmer and hazier with afternoon pre-monsoon storms, and it is also the mountaineering season, so lodges, helicopters and experienced crew are in demand. June to September is monsoon: cloud, landslides, road closures, frequent flight disruption and mountains you may never see. December to February is clear and cold with short shooting days, some high routes closed and lodges shut.

Two Nepal-specific items belong in the schedule conversation early. The autumn festivals of Dashain and Tihar move with the lunar calendar, close government offices, empty Kathmandu of crew and fill every vehicle and domestic flight, so check the dates before locking a block. And the mountain airstrips, Lukla included, operate on visual approaches and cancel for cloud. Cancellations compound, because the backlog pushes everyone down the queue. In peak seasons, Lukla flights have run from Manthali in Ramechhap rather than Kathmandu, which adds a pre-dawn road transfer to the day. We confirm the current arrangement for your dates.

Helicopters mostly fly in the morning before cloud builds, and payload falls as altitude and temperature rise, so passenger and kit counts are a hard constraint rather than a formality. Road moves carry their own risk, and Kathmandu to Pokhara or Chitwan should not share a day with a sequence you cannot lose. A broadcast schedule for Nepal with no weather contingency will break. Agree the go/no-go points in advance, agree a lower-altitude cover story that still cuts, and agree what a held day costs before you are standing in the rain deciding. Assume a mountain shoot will lose at least one flying day and plan around it rather than hoping it holds.

Local crew, transport and production support are the core of what we do, and hiring locally puts people on the job who know the ground and the language. It does not remove the acclimatisation problem: crew based in Kathmandu at about 1,400 metres need the same ascent profile as anyone flying in, and only people who live at altitude are already acclimatised. Camera and grip inventories in Nepal are more limited than in a major production centre, and specialist broadcast kit is often better brought in under the temporary import arrangement. Send the kit list early and we will tell you what is worth sourcing here and what you should carry.

Nepal has not historically operated within the ATA carnet system, so broadcast kit generally enters on a temporary import arrangement, usually involving a deposit or bank guarantee cleared through an agent at Tribhuvan International Airport, with the same serialised items expected to leave again. Build the serial-numbered kit list properly the first time, because a list that does not match the boxes is the slowest problem to solve at an airport. We confirm the current customs position for your kit and your dates rather than quoting figures that move.

Domestic flights and helicopters carry firm weight limits, and a kit list that has not been cut in prep gets cut on an airstrip by somebody who is not on your crew. Lithium batteries are restricted by airlines and lose capacity in the cold, so charging strategy at altitude needs planning rather than optimism. Satellite communication devices are regulated in Nepal and should be declared and cleared in advance rather than discovered in a scanner.

Do not plan to upload rushes from a mountain lodge. Coverage on the trails is patchy and slow where it exists at all. Plan physical duplication in the field, two sets of drives travelling separately, and one named person whose only job is knowing where the cards are. If the edit needs material by a fixed date, work backwards from that date through the courier, the flight and the customs position on data, and give us that deadline rather than just the shoot dates.

The honest part of this job is telling you what will not work, and factual television gives plenty of occasions to say it. If your transmission date forces a mountain block into the monsoon, the reliable answer is that you will lose flying days and may never see the peaks, and no amount of local knowledge changes cloud. If your format wants a scripted set piece delivered at altitude on the third day, the answer is that it will not deliver, and the fix is to move it later, lower or out. If a sequence depends on a drone that may be refused, the answer is to design the programme so it still works without aerials, because a refusal is a realistic outcome rather than a rare one.

There are also things that are simply not open. Some heritage interiors and rituals will not admit a camera, and asking harder does not change that, it only damages access for the next crew. Some communities will decline, and that is their decision to make. A helicopter to high altitude and back is not a substitute for acclimatisation, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Saying this early is cheaper for you than discovering it on location. It is also the reason productions come back: a plan built on the real ground holds together, and a plan built on optimism breaks at the worst moment. Send us the outline while it is still a draft, tell us the deadlines that cannot move and the sequences that cannot be lost, and we will tell you what the ground allows. Where Nepal is the right choice, that is exactly what we will say too, and then we get on with making it work.