Full Terms & Conditions
These terms and conditions apply to the BBC Countryfile Magazine X BBC Science Focus Cat of the Year 2026 promotion.
The Promoter of the Competition is Our Media Limited (company number 05715415) a company incorporated in England and Wales whose registered address is at Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST (the “Promoter”).
The BBC Code of Conduct for competitions can be found at https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidance/code-of-conduct and all BBC magazines comply with the Code.
The promotion is open to all residents of the UK Mainland, aged 18 years or over, except employees or contractors of the Promoter, Cats Protection (as defined in paragraph 6.e) or the Prize Suppliers (as defined in paragraph 6.e), and anyone else connected with the promotion, or their direct family members.
The closing date for entries is 12:00 on 27th October 2026.
By entering the promotion, the participants agree:
to be bound by these terms and conditions;
that their entry is entirely your own work and does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third parties;
that the photograph and supporting statement submitted as part of their entry are their own original work and have not been generated by artificial intelligence or materially altered using artificial intelligence, except for ordinary technical adjustments such as cropping, resizing, exposure or colour correction;
to grant BBC Countryfile Magazine and BBC Science Focus and all of its associated titles, websites and platforms published or operated by Our Media Limited a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide and irrevocable licence to use, edit, reproduce and publish the submitted image(s) and accompanying text in any media, including online and in print;
to grant Cats Protection Trustee Limited ("Cats Protection") and any third party prize suppliers who have provided a prize in connection with the promotion (“Prize Suppliers”), a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use, reproduce and publish the submitted image(s) and accompanying text solely for the purposes of promoting, publicising and reporting on the Competition (including announcing finalists and winners) on Cats Protection's and/or Prize Supplier’s websites, social media channels and other owned marketing channels;
that any identifiable individual featured in the entry has given their explicit consent to the use of their image and/or personal data as described above;
that their name and county of residence may be released if they win a prize; and
that should they win the promotion, their name and likeness may be used by the Promoter and/or Cats Protection for pre-arranged promotional purposes, and that the Promoter and/or Cats Protection may use the winner's contact details provided to contact the winner for such promotional purposes, including (without limitation) to support regional press coverage.
Entrants should enter by completing the submission form on the BBC Countryfile Magazine X BBC Science Focus Cat of the Year 2026 microsite https://advertorial.ourmedia.co.uk/cat-of-the-year-2026/ with a photo of their cat, their cat’s name, a supporting statement as to why they deserve to be crowned Cat of the Year, the entrant’s name and their email address. Entries received after the closing date of the promotion will not be considered.
Photos must be submitted in a digital format (JPEG or PNG). To ensure suitable quality for publication in print or online, images should ideally be between 100 KB and 50 MB in file size. The Promoter is not responsible for corrupted or unreadable files.
Entrants must supply their name and email to Our Media Limited. The Promoter will use entrants’ personal details in accordance with the Our Media Privacy Policy (https://policies.ourmedia.co.uk/privacy-policy/).
Entrants may submit one entry per category in the Competition, regardless of the method of entry. Bulk or automated entries submitted by third parties will not be accepted. Each cat may be entered into the Competition by only one owner, and cannot be submitted by multiple individuals.
A panel of judges comprising members of the Countryfile and Science Focus editorial teams (the “Judging Panel”) will review all eligible entries. The panel will shortlist five cats for each of the five categories: Mature moggies (aged over 10 years); Community champions; Second-chance stars; Family favourites; Incredible and Unique.
The judges will assess entries using the following criteria:
· Image quality – clarity, lighting, and technical standard of the photograph;
· Composition – framing, focus, and visual balance;
· Originality – creativity and uniqueness of the entry;
· Relevance to category – how well the image and entry reflect the selected category;
· Supporting statement – anecdotes that demonstrate commendable traits or behaviours, and alignment with the selected category.
Each entry will be scored independently by the judges. The top five scoring entries per category will progress to a public vote.The Promoter reserves the right to moderate, reject, or remove entries that are incomplete, offensive, irrelevant, contain unlawful content, or are deemed not in the spirit of the Competition.
The public vote for the Competition shall open at 12:00 on 19th November 2026 and shall close at 12:00 on 10th December 2026. The entry with the highest number of votes in each category shall be named the winner of that category. From the category winners, the overall winner of the BBC Countryfile X BBC Science Focus Cat of the Year 2026 will be selected by members of the Countryfile and Science Focus editorial teams, one representative from Cats Protection and social media influencer, Rachel Verney. The overall winner will therefore also be the winner of their respective category.
The Promoter reserves the right to disqualify votes deemed to be fraudulent, automated, or unfairly obtained (including through use of bots, scripts, or bulk voting services). Measures may be taken to check the legitimacy of votes received.
The winners will be publicly announced on https://advertorial.ourmedia.co.uk/cat-of-the-year-2026/ on 17/12/2026 and in the February 2027 issues of BBC Countryfile Magazine on sale from 28/01/2027 and BBC Science Focus Magazine on sale from 26/01/2027. The Promoter will contact all winners within 10 days of the public announcement using the contact details provided upon entry. If a winner does not respond within 28 days of notification, the Promoter reserves the right to offer the prize to a runner-up or to re-offer the prize in a future promotion.
The outcome of the public vote and the panel’s decision regarding the overall winner is final and no correspondence relating to the Competition winners will be entered into. The Promoter may share winners’ details with the prize providers, Inspiring Vet Care and Mr. Forthergill’s Seeds, solely for the purposes of prize fulfilment.
The prizes:
The overall winner of BBC Countryfile Magazine X BBC Science Focus Cat of the Year 2026 shall receive an Inspiring Vet Care 1-year Pet Health Club Cat Essential plan membership and a Mr. Fothergill’s Seeds hamper worth £198.59, containing the following:
Outdoor Cat Safe Bundle £13.39
Indoor Cat Safe Bundle £12.45
10L compost £6.99
20L compost £13.99
Plantable Pots 12 x 6cm £6.99
Plantable Pots 22 x 8cm £7.99
Plantable Pots 6 x 12cm £6.99
80 x Aluminium Plant Labels £17.95
Shaker Boxes x 4 £40
Darlac Bypass Pruners £33.95
Darlac Sharpener £21.95
Darlac Snips £15.95
The winner must activate their Inspiring Vet Care 1-year Pet Health Club Cat Essential plan membership within 90 days of receiving details of how to claim the prize. The membership will be provided by Inspiring Vet Care and, once activated, will remain valid for a period of 12 months from the activation date. Failure to activate the membership within the 90-day period may result in the prize being forfeited.
The winner must be a UK mainland resident and must be over 18 years of age.
The four runner-up category winners of BBC Countryfile Magazine X BBC Science Focus Cat of the Year 2026 shall each receive a Mr. Fothergill’s Seeds hamper worth £57.77, containing the following:
Outdoor Cat Safe Bundle £13.39
Indoor Cat Safe Bundle £12.45
10L compost £6.99
Plantable Pots 6 x 12cm £6.99
80 x Aluminium Plant Labels £17.95
The hampers will be supplied by Mr Forthergill’s Seeds.Winner must be a UK mainland resident and must be over 18 years of age.
The Promoter may share the details of the winners with the prize provider for the purposes of fulfilling/delivering the prizes.
All prizes will be supplied and delivered by Inspiring Vet Care and Mr. Fothergill’s Seeds, who will also cover delivery costs. The Promoter is not responsible for any delay, failure, or dispute relating to the fulfilment of prizes by Inspiring Vet Care or Mr Fothergill’s Seeds.
There is no cash alternative and the prize will not be transferable. Prizes must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute the prize with one of the same or greater value.
The surname and county of residence of the winners will be available upon request by sending an SAE to BBC Countryfile Magazine X BBC Science Focus Cat of the Year 2026 competition, Eagle House, Colston Ave, Bristol BS1 4ST within two months of the closing date of the promotion. The Promoter will contact the winners before releasing this information and provide the winners the opportunity to object or limit the amount of information shared.
The Promoter reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions or to cancel, alter or amend the promotion at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
The Promoter does not accept any responsibility for lost, delayed or fraudulent entries.
The Promoter excludes liability to the full extent permitted by law for any loss, damage or injury occurring to the participant arising from his or her entry into the promotion or occurring to the winners arising from his or her acceptance of a prize.
The promotion is subject to the laws of England.