Are you interested in a career in development or have an idea you want to pitch?
Watch the full panel discussion between Damian Kavanagh, Catherine Lynch and Kate Stannard as they share the qualities needed for a successful career in development and the key to grabbing the attention of commissioners.
“If you are defensive and precious about your idea, and you won’t let it evolve, whether that’s in your brainstorm or when you’re pitching to the commissioner, it’s just never going to go anywhere,” explained Catherine Lynch, creative director at Initial TV, which makes ITV gameshow Tenable.
Initial’s head of development Kate Stannard agreed: “What you end up seeing on telly is often quite different to the thing you first said in the room.”
Not everyone was happy with the Royal Television Society crowning BBC Three Channel of the Year. As one young viewer tweeted: “@bbcthree how can you win channel of the year, if you don’t actually exist on a channel?”
The success of online-only, schedule-free BBC Three shows that our idea of what constitutes a channel is evolving.
Anyone who tuned in for BBC Three’s final broadcast in the early hours of 16 February might have noticed the youth channel go out with a whimper, not a bang.
Not for BBC Three, any self-congratulatory run-down of the best commissions in its 13-year history. Instead, a repeat of Gavin & Stacey was followed by a trailer for new, online drama Thirteen and it all ended with a test card announcing that the channel had moved.
Perhaps the lack of fanfare was part of the brand’s emphatic declaration that it wasn’t closing, but moving.
A host of new long- and short-form programmes will be released on the BBC Three website, iPlayer and across social media following the switchover on 16 February.
The online service will build on BBC Three’s reputation for original British comedy and though-provoking documentaries. It will also be a home for contemporary British drama, innovative entertainment and current affairs programming.
The BBC Trust has today approved plans to move BBC Three online.
In a blog post, BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh said the channel was adapting to meet the needs of young people.
Kavanagh promised the move would offer wider opportunities for talent, who would have space to experiment away from the constraints of linear television.
BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh fielded harsh criticism from audience and panel alike at the RTS Futures Summer Party.
"Is TV out of touch?" asked former CBBC presenter Kirsten O’Brien, who chaired the event, "is it relevant for 16 to 34 year olds?"
With the BBC’s youth brand soon set to relinquish its linear channel, Kavanagh was told that young people were bearing the brunt of difficult BBC cuts.
