The BBC's Creative Future blueprint will commit the corporation to creating fewer dramas with longer runs and focus more attention on top-rating shows such as EastEnders and Casualty.
Today's Creative Future presentation by the director general, Mark Thompson, cited BBC1 dramas Bleak House and the current Jimmy McGovern series, The Street, as examples of the high-profile programming with "pace, energy and emotion" and "higher audience value" that the BBC aims to replicate.
EastEnders and Casualty will be "cherished", he said.
In a move stemming in part from BBC drama's commitment to cut its budget by 15% over the next three years, the policy rethink will compel the department to consolidate existing successes and produce fewer shows but with longer runs.
Production cost per hour can be kept lower when shows are made in longer runs.
However, Creative Future also calls for the BBC to come up with more writer-led radio dramas, support single drama and writers, and experiment with gaming and interactive content in the genre, such as last year's online drama Jamie Kane.
The report promises that the BBC will "take entertainment seriously" and has committed to experimenting with cross-media platform content such as video games. It also calls for "braver" entertainment programming on Saturday nights on BBC1 plus at least two stripped events in the genre on the channel each year.
The Creative Future blueprint demands more effective piloting, cross-media commissioning and closer collaboration with between entertainment and other genres such as factual to create more shows like The Apprentice.
In comedy, the policy document calls for more contemporary sitcoms, an increase in the number of pilots and more investment in rehearsal time and script development.
The corporation will also hold an annual BBC comedy day for those involved in creating comedy for the BBC. "The audiences of tomorrow currently get too little of real value from the BBC. The BBC needs to think how it engages them and reflect their lives better," the corporation said in a statement on the review.
"Audiences want more than facts. They also want to be seriously entertained through drama, entertainment and comedy, but also through factual programmes. "Increasingly, audiences of all ages not only want the choice of what to watch and listen to when they want. They also expect to take part, debate, create and control. Interactivity and user-generated content are increasingly important stimuli for the creative process." Mr Thompson said these and more detailed recommendations in each area were just the beginning of creative renewal and would be facilitated by other important initiatives resulting from further research.
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