- The BAFTA Television Craft Awards will take place on Sunday 26 April 2026
- The BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises will take place on Sunday 10 May 2026
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The countdown to next year’s BAFTA Television Craft Awards and the BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises begins, with the categories, eligibility, voting rules and timeline both unveiled today. Entries are now officially open.
Celebrating the exceptional storytelling, creativity, and craft of British and international television and the people who bring it to life on and off screen, the two ceremonies span 49 competitive awards categories, from casting, photography, and editing, to writing, performing and directing across all TV genres.
In May, 2.5 million people watched the BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises ceremony on BBC One and BBC iPlayer alongside 23 million video views of BAFTA’s social media coverage of the night. Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Mr Loverman and Blue Lights led the wins.
BAFTA reviews all aspects of its awards annually with BAFTA’s Television Committee and sector peers. Its guiding principles are to celebrate creative excellence, level the playing field, provide a fair and robust process, encourage positive change, and evolve alongside the ever-changing industry landscape.
A comprehensive overview of entry information including rules and eligibility requirements can be found on BAFTA’s Awards webpage here.
Key Changes
International
- For the first time, all BAFTA Television voters will determine the nominations and the winners in the International category. We have opened up the international category to voting members as part of our commitment to greater member engagement across the TV Awards and in recognition of our global membership. We believe this change will strengthen the category and ensure the very best international programmes get the recognition they deserve.
- We recognise the increasing trend of international co-productions in our craft TV categories. For team submissions with at least five candidates, we are now allowing one exemption for a senior team member who might not be UK-eligible – as long as 80% of the team are UK-eligible and there is a clear reason for the exemption. This reflects how our industry works today, while maintaining our commitment to celebrating UK talent and craft.
Key dates
- Tuesday 5 August 2025: Entries Open
- Date TBC March 2026: P&O Cruises Memorable Moment nominations
- Tuesday 24 March 2026: BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises and BAFTA Television Craft nominations
- Sunday 26 April 2026: BAFTA Television Craft Awards
- Sunday 10 May 2026: BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises
Hilary Rosen, chair of BAFTA’s Television Committee, said: “In a year when we saw that TV still has the power to spark national debate and where we honoured the exceptional creativity and craft of British and international TV, I’m delighted to open entries again for Britain’s biggest celebration of the small screen. This year, the most notable change to the rulebook is the International category, which will now be determined by our 6,000-strong TV voting membership. Awarding creative excellence and inspiring future talent is central to BAFTA’s mission, so we look forward to commemorating the achievements of the exceptional people who bring TV to life on and off-screen next Spring.”
The P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award will also return, honouring the impact of television in the UK and its power to entertain, inform and bring the nation together – looking back at key moments from 2025 that inspired and moved audiences at home.
The P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award, the only award voted for by the public, was won earlier this year by Strictly Come Dancing for the ‘Chris McCausland’s performance to You’ll Never Walk Alone with Dianne Buswell’. A public vote will open in March 2026, date to be confirmed, when nominations are announced.
The 2026 awards will showcase programmes broadcast in the UK between 1 January – 31 December 2025.
For more information, please contact:
BAFTA Press Office
Photography:
Photography available to download here. Password: Rulebook26
Hilary Rosen: Credit Kate Green/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
BAFTA Mask: Credit BAFTA/Thomas Alexander
Alan Cumming: Credit John Phillips/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
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About BAFTA
BAFTA’s mission as a charity is to champion the creative and cultural importance of the screen arts across film, games and television. Through its Awards ceremonies and year-round programme of talent initiatives and learning events that include masterclasses, lectures, scholarships, bursaries and mentoring schemes in the UK and North America, BAFTA identifies and celebrates excellence, discovers, inspires and nurtures new screen talent, and enables learning and creative collaboration. For more, visit www.bafta.org. BAFTA is a registered charity (no. 216726).
About P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises is Britain’s favourite cruise line, welcoming guests onboard its seven ships to experience holidays with a blend of discovery, choice, relaxation and exceptional service catered towards British
tastes. With a proud history spanning more than 187 years, each ship has its own appeal from family friendly or exclusively for adults with every sailing delivering each guest a holiday like never before.
With over 180 destinations worldwide, P&O Cruises itineraries are carefully curated to inspire discovery and are varied to suit newcomers and experienced guests alike. P&O Cruises prides itself on working with top culinary talent; Food Heroes include chefs Marco Pierre White, José Pizarro and Shivi Ramoutar and as well as award-winning drinks expert Olly Smith. Kjartan Skjelde has created Norwegian speciality dishes for sailings to the Norwegian fjords.
Recent awards for P&O Cruises include:
- Wave Awards 2024 – Best Ocean Cruise Line
- British Travel Awards 2024 – Best Cruise Line for Family Holidays (winner) and Best Cruise Line for No-Fly Cruise Holidays (silver accreditation)
- Best in Cruise Awards by Cruise Critic Awards 2024 – Best Cruise Line and Best for Families
- The Travel Industry Awards 2024 by TTG – Ocean Cruise Line of the Year company is part of Carnival Corporation & PLC (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE:CUK).
