CLIN
0001

0002

Booking Vendor

LABOR
CATEGORY
Booker/Casting
Director

UNIT (Hour)
2080

OPTIONAL CLINS
Other Direct Costs N/A
(Guest Travel)

UNIT (Per
trip)
N/A

Price Per

Roundtrip
to/from
Washington,
DC

1

 Booking Vendor
Statement of Work (SOW)

Introduction:
The mission of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is to inform, engage, and
connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. The USAGM broadcast
services include two federal entities: The Voice of America (VOA) and the Office of Cuba
Broadcasting (OCB); and three USAGM-sponsored grantees: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).
The USAGM upholds freedom of expression and information as universal human rights.
The USAGM fosters and sustains free and democratic societies by exemplifying and supporting
free media. The USAGM networks pursue this mission through their own engaging content on
television, radio, Internet, social and mobile platforms, and also by working closely with media
partners around the world that bring our content into local markets, establishing valuable
connections to critical institutions that support civil society and democratic principles. With
media sources proliferating around the world, information is more powerful than ever. But the
existence of more media does not yield more press freedom. Using professional
journalism, USAGM networks provide an alternative to disinformation and extremist
propaganda.  
With programming in 61 languages, thousands of media partners, and on-the-ground reporting
capabilities around the world, USAGM networks are also well poised to react quickly in crisis
situations. In order to have impact with audiences, the USAGM must provide quality
programming and earn the trust of audiences. The programming of USAGM networks is
consumed by a worldwide audience of 278 million people in 61 languages each week.

Background and Objective:
The Voice of America's Persian Service, Persian News Network (PNN), has a requirement for a
vendor (hereinafter referred to as "Contractor") to provide booking services for the contractor to
coordinate and provide on-air talent at PNN’s Washington, DC studios.
The PNN requires the services of a Booking Vendor, responsible for research, booking,
coordination, and placement of newsmakers, world authorities, specialists, professionals, and
experts on VOA news and information programs.
The purpose of this SOW is to solicit on-air talent and to build a database of program
participants for use in VOA Television and Internet broadcasting. For purposes of this SOW, the
work shall be performed on a per hour basis.
All work shall be performed under the general direction of the VOA’s Persian Service
management and in accordance with "The VOA Journalistic Code" and Best Practices. No
minimum assignments are guaranteed.  

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 Scope:
The Contractor must originate program participant ideas, initiate contact with prominent global
figures to be interviewed on VOA Persian programs by broadcasters and correspondents and
provide program participant background to producers for the purpose of show development.
The duties of the Booking Vendor are defined as identifying, vetting, confirming the
credentials and successfully booking subject matter expert (program participant) with knowledge
of subject areas listed below to participate in VOA Persian broadcasts. The Contractor’s
assignment rate shall be fully loaded to include overhead (e.g., health insurance), G&A, and
profit.
Tasks:
1. The Contractor must conduct necessary research and verification and provide VOA
Persian with biographies of program participants, participant background information on
the topic or range of topics to be discussed.
2. The Contractor must participate in editorial planning and production meetings as needed.
3. The Contractor must identify commentators and officials within various areas of
expertise including social, economic, and foreign policy that are critical when reporting
on relations between Iran and the United States.
4. The Contractor must keep up with national and international news events, newsmakers,
national and international figures, scientific experts, and world authorities. The
Contractor must have the ability to represent VOA Persian as a major international news
organization and persuade newsmakers, politicians, national and international figures,
and experts to participate in VOA Persian broadcasts.
5. The Contractor must ensure that all program participants are first approved by the VOA
Contracting Officer Representative (COR) prior to final booking on a VOA program.
6. The Contractor must ensure this work has balance in content, advance planning of work,
refinement of the methods and techniques to be used and in-depth understanding of the
political, cultural, social, and economic issues in the targeted areas in order to facilitate
clear, factual, and impartial input to programming. Note: Program participant(s) may not
be knowledgeable about VOA, or may be skeptical, resistant, or uncooperative.
Therefore, the Contractor must be skillful and persuasive in approaching each individual
or group in order to obtain the desired outcome.
7. The Contractor must maintain a database with all contacts and bios of all talents booked
with all pertinent contact information (recent email, phone, address, etc.) whom
successfully appeared on VOA Persian Network shows. The Contractor is expected to
use an commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) online searchable database tool to create and
populate the database of talent booked. The database shall be maintained reguarly during
the course of the contract. The database should be able to report out the data captured so
that it can be provided in a format useful to the agency. The data from the database shall
be provided to the USAGM/VOA upon request, as well as, at the end of the contract
period of performance (no less than annually) for the future use of the agency.
The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) must be able to contact the Contractor between
the hours of 8 a.m. - 4 p.m., eastern standard time (EST) on business days. The Contractor must
respond to the calls or emails within two hours of request from the COR. The Contractor may be
contacted on holidays and weekends.

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 Deliverables:
Deliverable

Due Date

Government
Turnaround Time
3 business days after
receipt, if applicable

Monthly status report
(phone call, written,
or in person – at the
discretion of COR)

1st of each month

Electronic Database
created and
maintained
throughout the period
of performance
(POP) with reporting
capability

Reports or hardcopy
3 business days after
of the data from the
receipt, as applicable
databased is to be
delivered upon
request, as well as, on
an annual basis, five
(5) calendar days
upon expiration of
the base POP and all
option years, if
exercised

Delivery of Documents/COR
All translations and other documents as stated herein shall be sent to the addressees indicated
below:
a. Deliveries for VOA/BBG Headquarters in Washington, DC:
Voice of America (VOA)
Attn: VOA – Arkadiy Orlov
Cohen Building, Room 1450
330 Independence Avenue SW.
Washington, DC 20237
Arkady has been designated as the COR for this Statement of Work for purposes of coordination
on events and program participants, and inspection and acceptance of reports.
Contract Type:
This is a Fixed-Price labor hour contract. The work shall be performed on a Fixed-Price basis. In
addition, although not common, if necessary, the Government will reimburse the Contractor for
actual Travel expenses at cost, as required. The Contractor's per-assignment rate shall be based
on fully burdened rates (, i.e., rates that include overhead (e.g., health insurance), G&A, and
profit.
Security Requirements:
N/A

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 Key Contractor Personnel:
The Contractor shall provide qualified personnel to perform all requirements specified under this
Statement of Work (SOW).
Minimum Requirements for any person(s) proposed as key personnel:
The Contractor must have in-depth knowledge of booking techniques for television and radio
programming and have professional knowledge of broadcast journalism and commercial
broadcast news production techniques, including interaction between traditional broadcast
television and the Internet to produce programs with unique digital content.
The Contractor must have the proven ability to identify, establish relationship with subject matter
experts with knowledge of U.S. policies and global issues, including foreign relations, economic
security, national defense and environmental protection; knowledge of American life and society
and cultural differences between the U.S. and foreign countries; knowledge of world events,
current U.S. policies and foreign relations with other nations; knowledge of relationships
between nations and their regional neighbors and/or international nations; knowledge of the
impact of U.S. history on current events.

KEY PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS
Key Personnel (JAN 1993)
(a) The following individuals are considered to be essential to the successful performance of the
work hereunder:
* Booking/Casting Director
The contractor agrees that personnel may not be removed from the contract work or replaced
without compliance with paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section.
(b) If one or more of the key personnel, for whatever reason, becomes, or is expected to become,
unavailable for work under this contract for a continuous period exceeding 30 work days, or is
expected to devote substantially less effort to the work than indicated in the proposal or initially
anticipated, the contractor shall immediately notify the contracting officer and shall, subject to
the concurrence of the contracting officer, promptly replace the personnel with personnel of at
least substantially equal ability and qualifications.
(c) Each request for approval of substitutions must be in writing and contain a detailed
explanation of the circumstances necessitating the proposed substitutions. The request must also
contain a complete resume for the proposed substitute and other information requested or needed
by the contracting officer to evaluate the proposed substitution. The contracting officer and the
project officer shall evaluate the contractor's request and the contracting officer shall promptly
notify the contractor of his or her decision in writing.

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 (d) If the contracting officer determines that suitable and timely replacement of key personnel
who have been reassigned, terminated, or have otherwise become unavailable for the contract
work is not reasonably forthcoming, or that the resultant reduction of productive effort would be
so substantial as to impair the successful completion of the contract or the service order, the
contract may be terminated by the contracting officer for default or for the convenience of the
Government, as appropriate. If the contracting officer finds the contractor at fault for the
condition, the contract price or fixed fee may be equitably adjusted downward to compensate the
Government for any resultant delay, loss, or damage.
*To be incorporated into any resultant contract
(End of clause)

Other Unique Requirements and Considerations:
a. Pursuant to FAR 52.227-17, USAGM shall own the copyright of any data produced in the
performance of this contract.
b. The Contractor must not register a trademark for any marks, names, logos, or slogans
associated with this text or content and must agree to fully cooperate with Agency efforts
to seek trademark registration, if any.
Confidentiality Requirements:
Contractor must not disclose to any third party any confidential business information concerning
VOA that was acquired or derived in the course of performance.
Government Furnished Property:
N/A
Acceptance:
The Contractor must maintain a monthly Attendance/Hours Incurred Log of all hours worked in
performance of all booking services called for hereunder, as well as reimbursable expenses, if
any, with supporting documentation. A copy of this Attendance/Hours Incurred Log shall be
attached to each Contractor’s invoice submitted.
All work shall be completed in accordance with standard procedures and guidelines provided
orally or in writing by the COR who will be appointed at the time of award. Submissions of
documents should be made using standard business software used by the USAGM, such as
Excel, MS Word, and/or PowerPoint. All work provided under this contract shall be completed
and delivered by the timeframe outlined herein. All deliverables shall be sent, via email, to the
COR and/or designated Government official. All deliverables submitted during a billing cycle
should be listed on the invoice.

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 Place of Performance:
The preference is for the Contractor to be based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, but
work may occur at the Contractor’s facilities. Note that booked guests must be willing and able
to come to VOA’s studios in Washington, DC for interviews and filming, sometimes on short
notice.
Period of Performance:
The period of performance of this contract will be for one base year and four additional 12month option year(s) as follows:
Base Year 05/01/2019 – 04/30/2020
Option Year 05/01/2020 -- 04/30/2021
Option Year 05/01/2021 -- 04/30/2022
Option Year 05/01/2022 -- 04/30/2023
Option Year 05/01/2023 -- 04/30/2024
Invoicing:
1952.232-91 Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements - Invoice Payment Platform (IPP)
(April 2016)  
Payment requests for all new awards must be submitted electronically through the U. S.
Department of the Treasury's Invoice Payment Platform System (IPP).    
"Payment request" means any request for contract financing payment or invoice payment by the
Contractor. To constitute a proper invoice, the payment request must comply with the
requirements identified in FAR 32.905(b), "Payment documentation and process" and the
applicable Prompt Payment clause included in this contract. The IPP website address is:
https://www.ipp.gov.
Instructions, Conditions and Notices to Offerors:
Offerors must provide three volumes as part of their Proposal submission, including:
1. Technical
a. A clear demonstration of the offeror’s understanding of the SOW, and how the
Offeror’s proposed approach will meet VOA’s mission, all requirements, and
deliverables as described in the SOW. Specifically, the offeror should
demonstrate how the process it will use to identify and secure guest talent for
VOA’s programs, and the considerations it will make to ensure that credible and
notable guests are available for interviews in Washington, D.C. studios, as
required.
2. Past Performance
a. The Offeror must provide past performance information in accordance with the
following:
i. Provide past performance on recent relevant projects during the last 4
(four) years. No fewer than 3 (three) and no more than 5 (five) projects

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 must be submitted. These projects must be similar in complexity and
scope to the work called for in the SOW.
ii. Provide for each of the previous past performance samples listed above at
least one contact from the entity serviced who was directly involved in the
management of the work, including name(s), job title(s), current phone
number(s), and current email address(es).
iii. The Offeror’s quote must demonstrate the offeror’s experience as follows:
1. The degree to which the offeror’s past performance demonstrates
the likelihood it can successfully perform the SOW.
2. Broadcast TV booking experience with high-profile talent on large,
national networks.
3. Price
a. The following guidance is provided with respect to the price proposal: Offeror
shall provide fully-burdened firm-fixed, price (FFP) rates to VOA – inclusive of
any applicable discounts or prompt payments. There shall be no assumptions
which have cost/price implications to the meeting the requirements stated herein
outside of the proposed FFP.
b. Travel will not be reimbursed for contractor employees, rather, for guests or talent
that must travel to VOA’s studios in Washington, D.C. from another location.
Offerors should estimate average costs for travel to D.C. (from a location that
their talent base is likely to travel from).
Evaluation (Criteria) Factors for Award:
Evaluation—Commercial Items (Oct 2014) 
The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror
whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price
and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:
1. Technical
c. The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s demonstrated understanding of the
requirements stated in the SOW and capability to deliver services within the
period(s) delineated in the SOW, in accordance with the stated
requirements/timeline for booking services as stated.
2. Past Performance
a. The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s past performance to determine the
degree to which it demonstrates the likelihood it can successfully perform
the SOW. The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s past performance on recent
relevant projects during the last 4 (four) years, similar in complexity and scope to
the proposed booking services.
b. The Offeror will be evaluated on the caliber and notoriety of the broadcast
networks and talent it has worked with. Greater preference will be given to
experience with larger networks and higher profile guests.
c. Offerors that demonstrate ability to have talent onsite at VOA’s studios in
Washington, DC, occasionally on short notice, will be given preference.

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 3. Price
a. The Offeror’s price quote will be evaluated to determine fairness and
reasonableness. In the event that multiple proposals are deemed to be of equal
technical quality, price will become more important.

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