Channel 4’s new proof-of-concept development fund designed to back big, original British unscripted formats building on the channel’s recent run of bold, returnable series including Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing, Virgin Island and Secret Genius.
This is an opportunity to pitch your biggest and most brilliant ideas. The intention is for these ideas to be genuinely audacious, innovative, big enough to pass the ‘poster test’ – are they a big enough proposition to imagine on posters across the country or splashed across the homepage on streaming? And do they have a broad enough appeal that we can be confident that viewers will come (across streaming and linear)?
The fund will greenlight three to five concepts, offering £100,000 each to provide substantial development support to indies to ensure ambitious ideas are properly tested and refined. Channel 4 will be looking for big, broad, returnable formats, with the ambition of taking at least one of the projects to full series commission.
Ideas should be pitched via Channel 4’s unscripted genre teams: Documentaries & Factual Entertainment; Lifestyle; Reality & Entertainment; and Specialist Factual.
All ideas must be submitted via 4ideas, Channel 4’s new platform for indies to manage their company data, maintain their contact details, and submit and track ideas. Please state clearly in your submission that you would like it to be considered as part of the Proof of Concept Fund.
The deadline for initial submissions is the end of July, with Proof of Concepts expected to be greenlit in early Autumn.
Please select the most appropriate Commissioning Editor for your idea and submit it to them through 4ideas. Art Sejdiu and Vivienne Molokwu will oversee the process, working alongside commissioners from the genre teams to develop and shape the selected projects.
All ideas taken to series will be funded by Motion Entertainment, a WPP Media Company.
