E4 are offering indies who have never made a series for E4 before the chance to win a pot of development cash, in a new Edinburgh International Television Festival session, What Young People Want: The Live Pitch, it was announced today (THURS).
Everyone is chasing young viewers, but the decision of what gets produced is often made by people past the 16-34 age bracket. So, how in touch with their audience are the commissioning editors and channel controllers who decide what these viewers would like to watch?
To find out, this session will invite four indies to pitch a reality show idea to a panel comprising 16-34 year-olds and E4 commissioning editors.
Members of the audience aged under 30 will vote via the festival app for their favourite idea.
In a Mr & Mrs moment, the commissioning editors will reveal their favourite idea… but will their choice match the audiences? Or will they choose the least popular idea?
We won’t stop there. E4 controller, Karl Warner, has put his money where his mouth is and is offering a guaranteed minimum of £5K development money to the best idea.
In return, the winning indie will make a commitment to hire a young person from The Network or Ones to Watch, the TV festival’s talent schemes to help develop the project.
For the chance to win development cash, and hopefully a commission, submit the title of your idea and up to 200 words describing it to: EITF@thetvfestival.com by 17th May, 2019.
Ideas will be assessed and shortlisted by members of the TV festival’s talent schemes, The Network, Ones to Watch and an advisory committee member.
Festival director, Lisa Campbell, said: “This exciting opportunity to potentially get a new reality show greenlit is part of our efforts to showcase new talent and make the TV festival more accessible to a broader range of suppliers. It sits alongside our new indie rates and brand-new awards category which recognises the best indie under £5m. We look forward to seeing what the best creatives have to offer.”
As a festival and a charity, the Edinburgh International Television Festival is committed to helping young people from all backgrounds gain access to the TV Industry. It runs two young talent schemes, Ones to Watch and The Network.
Both schemes aim to ensure that the people working in television are as diverse as the audience watching it.
For more information log on to thetvfestival.com
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For more press information, please contact Plank PR on 020 8995 3936.
Note for editors:
E4 REALITY SHOW BRIEF
* Needs volume and scale
* The concept needs to be original – what’s ‘first’ about it?
* The cast feels fresh – who would be surprising but still engage a young audience?
* Don’t limit ideas to dating, it could be endurance, talent, social experiment…
* By submitting ideas, indies acknowledge that similar ideas might be submitted by other companies and the decision of who to invite to pitch lies with the TV festival and is final. Indies also acknowledge that similar ideas might already be in development with E4.
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