4iP Blog

Image courtesy of Tom Powell

This month we’ve been on the road meeting people at our Meet the Commissioner briefings in Belfast, London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Glasgow. Thank you to all those people that came along - it was good to meet you. I promised people I’d post up some notes,  so for those of you that couldn’t make it or those that did make it but have poor memories, here goes.

Introduction by Stuart Cosgrove, Director of Nations and Regions

• This coming together of C4 Digital Commissioners reflects changing and converging culture in C4.
• Attention no longer a right after period of spectrum scarcity.Peer to peer culture has changed use and exchange of information.
• Challenge is that notion of 4’ness is changing - we still need to innovate and take risks but we need to find new ways of getting brand credit.
• TV exists on C4 platforms but digital commissions exist on other platforms too.
• All of this means we have to use new skill sets.  Looking for new creative connections.

Louise Brown, Head of Cross Platform Commissioning

• Work with a small team across factual, entertainment and news seeking to extend and amplify current TV seasons.
• Success is broader reach and depth of impact.
• Budget & timings: £3m for 2010, average project = £200k. Briefing through the year as TV schedule unfolds.
• Would like to hear from experienced digital companies that have a good development team and are used to large impact content projects.  C4 don’t just work with large production companies and will work with smaller companies.  Happy to facilitate partnerships if the fit is right.
• Focus for 2010: Comedy (new talent and formats), News (more interaction and impact), Health (works well online).

Some examples of projects that have worked this year:

• Embarrassing bodies. Feedback from users has been incredible and the online experience now integral to the programmes.  Website is much more than marketing. Online & mobile content as important and satisfies user need to consume and research this sensitive subject in private.
• Skins. 45% of people that watch the show, interact with the content online - its normally nearer 1% for most shows.
• Hollyoaks, the morning after the night before.  Project backed by the Home Office and explores the subject of binge drinking. Community interactions in their own networks has helped get the message out beyond the show or programme website.

Matt Locke, Commissioning Editor, Education

• Budget & timings: £4.5m, mostly allocated but some funds left around teen mobility & public space. Commission around academic year and work six months before launch.
• Would like to do more work with game development companies, TV indies with research experience.  Experience with teens is a must.
• Focus for 2010: 14- 19 year olds. Projects are not curriculum based, but look at developing life skills: “good at life, not at school” (i.e. emotional resilience, teen mobility & public space).  Check out 4Producers for more information.

Some example projects from this year:

• Battlefront is about how teens are using the web to campaign.  Demonstrates that peer-to-peer learning important. A good example of ongoing commissioning.
• Routes Game - Partnership with The Welcome Trust. Game has had 18m plays since Jan ‘09.  Shows that C4 can have a bigger impact by going out into other networks.
• Smokescreen - about online identity and security, based around fictional missions on social networks.  It shows how information can be used and misused.  Its aim is not to scare but to educate.

Tom Loosemore, Head of 4iP

• 4iP is an investment fund, not commissioning in a traditional sense.  Works as a catalyst for ideas that have essence of ‘4’.
• Will invest in products that can sustain themselves.
• Interested in ideas that can only happen because of the Internet and go way beyond distributing media. Huge potential for participation and collaboration.
• Budget & timings: £20m over three years + match funding from Partnerships (Regional, Strand, Project).  Three types of project: Initial <£20k, Full av. £250k (pitch for this!) and equity £250-500k. Will invest equity in established companies.
• We operate within three funding tranches for each year.  The closing date for the next round of funding is 22 December 2009.
• 4iP is passionate about sustainable products.  Usually invest for 12 months but will assess whether it can live beyond our funding period. We’ll work with agencies but we will not pay for time you spend on your product. You have to own and develop the product and make it sustainable.
• We do do time limited splashes, possibly leveraging 4 brand.
• Areas of focus for 2010: new ways of holding power to account, health & wellbeing or “M.O.T your life”,  discovery & recommendation.  More fun, less worthy please!  What makes it ‘4’?

Some examples projects from this year:

• AudioBoo.  Gives everyone the ability with two clicks to record and upload to the web.  G20 demos were a turning point for product.  Geo located ‘boos’ used by news organisations.  Fantastic team behind Boo and we’ve worked with them through phases of investment to turn a great idea into a business.
• Mapumental.  Expose the best and worst places to live in UK by visualising complex data.  Plans to show crime, health, public transport data and show what it means to you in your local area.  Its the online equivalent of a TV current affairs format: the national story told through TV, but you can look at what this means for you.  Business model is a white-label a service.
• You Booze You Lose. An iPhone app with a revenue model.  Part of M.O.T your life area of interest:  helping people understand the impact of drinking habits on their future self. Made by a talented Dundee company. 4iP helped with business & pricing model.
• Test Tube Telly  A small, experimental project exploring social TV.  Helping people find content that they like, introducing serendipity into non-linear lives.
• FestBuzz.  Designed to test some of the latest sentiment detection technology from Affect Labs, from Edinburgh’s School of Informatics. Following a call to action, the two-person startup created crowdsourced show from nearly 750,000 tweets during August performances.
• Mybuilder - An equity deal.  Consumer protection for 21st century.  Integrate with C4 homes, but it exists in its own as a successful business.