There’s a long-standing TV industry conception that online original content is too low in quality, too niche and too difficult to make profitable. But that view is starting to look obsolete thanks to inventive digital-first companies such as Barcroft Studios, Little Dot Studios and others. Successful business models for premium online content are emerging as both profits and awards start to roll in.
A packed RTS Futures event, “Pitching script to screen”, offered aspiring writers and producers tips on how they should hone and sell their ideas to commissioners.
Leading the panel of seasoned comedy and entertainment practitioners was Tom Davis, the star of the RTS and Bafta award-winning BBC Three sitcom Murder in Successville.
Set on the island of Jersey, the original series ran from 1981 to 1991 and followed unorthodox detective sergeant Jim Bergerac (John Nettles), a recovering alcoholic, as he solved crimes and later became a private investigator.
The series was so popular it ran for nine seasons and brought tourists to Jersey to visit the beautiful locations seen on the show, making local landmarks widely recognisable.
Bergerac is being revived by Artists Studio, Endemol Shine UK and Westward Studios.
The RTS Futures Careers Fair is back with all the advice, help and information to kick start your career in television.
Don't miss this fantastic opportunity on Tuesday 6th February to take part in interview masterclasses, have your CV improved by professional employers and talk to the most influential creatives in the industry to help you get your first foot in the door in TV.
The new series will be in eight parts, compared to the previous series which was only spilt up into three episodes.
Series two will shed light on the work of the West Midlands Ambulance Service. Each hour-long episode will document the long tiresome shifts of the paramedics, controllers and call handlers, providing a 360 degree view of everyone involved.
Ambulance, will follow the work of paramedics and medical teams who work long hours to attend to the publics needs, no matter the issue.
Off to The Club at The Ivy for Sue Perkins’s book launch of Spectacles. It turns out that Sue had a penchant for kilts as a child. Who knew? The room is full of talented, inspirational women.
I’m thrilled to meet the legend that is Mary Berry, though she, Mel and Sue remain professionally tight-lipped about who is going to win Bake Off. I’m rooting for Nadiya.
There is little agreement about whether increasing US ownership of Britain’s independent sector threatens or sustains home-grown production and the UK’s unique creative culture.
A feisty session at the Convention, “Working for the yankee dollar? Consolidation and creativity”, offered conflicting views, not only on foreign ownership but also on the surprise review into the terms of trade announced by minister John Whittingdale the day before.
The world of television production can, to quote Digital UK Chief Executive Jonathan Thompson, "sometimes be somewhat sniffy about strategy folk".
With this in mind, he says Lucinda Hicks' success in becoming Endemol Shine UK's Chief Operating Officer is doubly impressive.
He hired Hicks to work with his team at Channel 4 in 2008, when he was its Strategy Director.
