Edinburgh TV Fest to Feature What Young People Want Pitch Session

What Young People Want: The Live Pitch, a new Edinburgh TV Festival session, is set to offer indies that have never before made a series for E4 the opportunity to compete for development cash from the channel.

This session will invite four indies to pitch their ideas for a reality show to a panel comprised of both E4 commissioning editors and those that fall into the 16 to 34 target audience age bracket. Members of the audience under age 30 will be able to vote for their favorite idea through the festival app. In the end, the commissioning editors will put forth their choice to see if it matches with that of the audience.

E4 Controller Karl Warner is offering a guaranteed minimum of £5,000 ($6,500) in development money to the winning idea. The winning indie, in return, will make a commitment to hire a young person from the Edinburgh TV Festival’s talent schemes The Network or Ones to Watch to help develop the project.

To enter the pitch session, hopeful indies have until May 17 to submit the title of their idea and up to 200 words describing it. Members of the aforementioned talent schemes and an advisory committee member will assess and shortlist the submissions.

Lisa Campbell, the festival director, 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 recognizes the best indie under £5 million ($6.5 million). We look forward to seeing what the best creatives have to offer.”