S4C & Media Cymru Execs Discuss Format Development Scheme

Wales has historically been an overlooked source of creative content, but the tide has slowly been shifting over the last several years. Welsh-language public broadcaster S4C teamed up with the research and development consortium Media Cymru for a format development funding scheme to help boost the format sector in particular.

“We realized that Wales has had great success in the scripted arena in recent years, and we wanted to build on the back of that global success and global visibility in the unscripted arena,” explains Iwan England, head of unscripted at S4C.

The initial phase of the scheme involved training delivered by the University of South Wales and Grand Scheme Media, providing applicants with invaluable market insights to help shape their format ideas. From there, the companies presented their concepts to S4C and Media Cymru for selection to move on to a funded development phase, after which one idea would be chosen to move forward to the pilot stage for S4C.

In terms of what types of formats they were looking for, England says, “We made it really clear that we weren’t looking to compete with the very top of the market, [with] those sort of massive, international, shiny-floor shows, [like] The Masked Singer or Got Talent-type juggernauts. What we were noticing was that there’s maybe an opportunity at the opposite end of the scale in those very popular and successful formats such as Come Dine with Me or Cash Cab or long-running stalwarts like Wife Swap that are still selling and not necessarily being replaced in the global market.”

“It’s those types of shows, specifically ones with a lot of heart and with human interest as a sub-theme, that have been very successful for us in the last few years,” he continues. “We were asking for a familiar, general topic but with an original twist, an eye-catching twist. We would try not to be too prescriptive and crush creativity while pointing toward the different areas and the different types of programs we thought would offer an opportunity for us with our audience but also that overlap with an opportunity in the international market.”

“What we wanted to do was open up the opportunity to ideate and think through the widest range of possible formats,” adds Sara Pepper, deputy director of Media Cymru. “That’s part of what offering the training was about—to encourage the applicants to think in the broadest possible way about possibilities and opportunities. Media Cymru is all about trying to encourage innovation, new ideas, new ways of working and new ways of producing cultural content.”

S4C and Media Cymru worked together to shortlist the nine companies and ideas that would receive up to £10,000 and move forward to the research and development phase. S4C approached the process through the prism of what would work best with its broadcast audience, as well as through a commercial lens, evaluating what concepts would be able to sell in some of the biggest markets and which had the best likelihood for brand extensions, England explains. Media Cymru was looking for ideas that were original and innovative and companies that were willing to dive deep into the research and development phase and make the most of the opportunity, Pepper says.

“Decisions were quite difficult to come to,” says Adam Partridge, research and development producer at Media Cymru. “We’re obviously really excited by the companies that did apply. Shortlisting wasn’t easy.”

The companies chosen—Wildflame Productions, Rondo Media, Chwarel Cyfyngedig, Little Bird Films, Orchard Media and Events Group, Cardiff Productions, Tomos TV, Ty’r Ddraig and Boom—were those whose ideas hit the sweet spot of meeting the needs of the S4C audience, showing commercial scalability promise and having sparks of innovation and originality.

Now, those nine companies are receiving three months of access to further research and development, with the help of Media Cymru and S4C. A major part of Media Cymru’s teachings is helping the companies refine their ideas through a double diamond four-step approach: discovery, define, develop and deliver.

“In the design process, companies will come up with an initial idea [during] what we would call a discovery phase, and then they would go forward and define their proposition a little further,” Partridge explains. “Then, once it’s developed, they’ll go into a development phase, then delivery. It’s called this double-diamond approach. I would say that traditional development for companies really focuses on the last two stages. What we’re trying to do as a fund is get companies to see the benefit of this ‘discovery and define’ phase within their practice. That’s what’s unique about this as compared to a traditional development process.”

From S4C’s viewpoint, “one thing we’re looking for in the development and in the companies is flexibility to develop and adjust each of the ideas to reflect back those fundamentals that we’ve been sharing with them and reflect back the audience insights,” England says.

They are looking for the companies to “drill down into the mechanics of each of the ideas,” he continues. “They’ve all got an engaging, intriguing or eye-catching proposition at the heart of them, but working that out, picking up on any practical problems or refining and sometimes simplifying the ideas will be key.”

This three-month research and development phase provides an invaluable experience, allowing each company to “actually work on real-world concepts, put those insights and that market intelligence into practice whilst having real-time feedback throughout,” England notes. S4C will be conducting meetings with each company throughout the process and will “also follow up in case there needs to be any course corrections or tweaks before the final materials are delivered so [that] each pitch, each idea, has the best chance of success.”

By the end of this phase, the companies will have “materials that can sell the ideas [and] convey the ideas in detail, including sizzle reels and pitch decks,” England says.

Then, similar to the process that narrowed the scheme down to nine companies, S4C and Media Cymru will undertake the task of selecting an idea to move forward as a pilot for the Welsh broadcaster based on the same criteria as before—what idea meets S4C’s audience needs, has commercial scalability and is innovative and original. Plus, they will take into account how the companies incorporated the feedback and insights they gained during the development phase, Pepper says.

“Though we’ll only likely be able to pilot a single idea, obviously we as a broadcaster are talking to some of the biggest names in format distribution and format production, [and the] production companies should end up with a well-developed idea with a package of materials that can promote each of these ideas anywhere in the world,” England says.

Whether or not they are chosen for an S4C pilot, the companies will have earned vital skills throughout the program that can set them up for future success.

“Right at the very outset, the few days training that each company received, the information shared there, especially the up-to-date market insights, it would have taken an individual 12-plus months to visit every market under the sun to gain some of that insight and information, and also quite a long career in some instances to pick up on some of those insights,” England notes. “That in itself is a great resource to everybody involved.”

The funded development phase furthers the resources for the nine shortlisted companies and “builds in skills and capabilities that they just may not have had the opportunity to learn before or frameworks for doing different processes that they can employ in the future,” Pepper says. Plus, “they will have had an idea that they pitched, they will have had that successfully funded to some adoption of R&D, and, in theory, they then will have an idea that will be almost ready to take to the next stage. What we’re really hopeful of is that there [will be] nine new ideas that can then be taken to other potential commissioners.”

Ultimately, “at the end of all of this, we want to see programs getting made and companies being successful,” Partridge says.