What are our current commissioning priorities?

FRIDAYS

8pm

This is a new slot that has opened up to us and we’re looking for quiz shows or game shows with broad family appeal. 9pm The Million Pound Drop is cutting through at 9pm and we’re looking for other scaled-up formats to play in this space - weekly fact ent or competitive reality game shows.

10pm

At 10pm we want the entertainment Holy Grail – a big Friday night entertainment show, that’s driven by big name talent, possibly live. We’re looking for shows that have a top-line concept that runs throughout. The model we’re using is Derren Brown’s The Events – a pre-recorded or live studio event with polished, high-end VTs that tell a story.

SATURDAYS

Early evening

We’re looking for talent-led broad entertainment comedy programming for early on Saturday nights, with new talent attached. Bringing new talent to the channel continues to be a big priority for us. Prime time Million Pound Drop is already playing successfully in prime time on Saturdays and now we want to commission other major new series for Saturday nights. It might be the c4 twist on the talent show or an ambitious physical game show.

SUNDAYS

Sunday nights have also opened up as a space for weekly reality formats or authored journeys.

STRIPPED EVENTS

The Million Pound Drop and The Bank Job both launched as strips and we’re looking for other breakthrough events and high concept formats. Shows with a Channel 4 twist that are a departure from Big Brother, stripped across one week or two, involving celebrities or not, and either live or building up to live.

Mid week at 10pm

We’re looking for formats to play mid week – they might be game shows or panel shows with a distinct and surprising hook, or hidden camera shows.

Interactive

We enjoyed unprecedented success with The Million Pound Drop’s play along game, which won the 2011 BAFTA for digital innovation. Now the Bank Job’s head to head game has attracted record breaking online audiences. We’re interested in exploring new ways to use ‘second screens’ to enhance the viewing experience of our programmes, with formats that have a digital element at their heart.

When it comes to entertainment; think interactive.

What are you not interested in?

We’re not looking for derivative shows, or social experiments – as long as the shows are funny and entertaining, a social purpose is secondary. If your idea isn’t funny and warm then it’s not for us.

What are the tariff prices for programmes you currently commission?

It depends on the idea and the slot but there are generous budgets for Entertainment.

What is the biggest creative challenge your team or genre faces?

With other channels playing out juggernaut talent shows and big brand reality in competitive slots, Channel 4 Entertainment has to compete with innovation. We aim to take risks and offer more creative freedom for our on-screen talent.

Our mission is broadening the output of Channel 4 Entertainment. With the success of The Million Pound Drop, a show that might previously have been taken to another channel, we showed that if you have a good idea, we can help to make it right for Channel 4.

So what made The Million Pound Drop a Channel 4 show? It was live and interactive. The brilliant Davina hosted and the questions and casting all helped to make it distinctly Channel 4. And of course the idea itself was counter-intuitive turning the traditional quiz show on its head.

What advice would you give to new talent companies keen to connect with your team?

We’re keeping the door wide open in Entertainment for any Indie with a good idea to bring it to us. Do come in and talk to us. Pitching ideas in person means we can ask lots of questions and talk it through. Or you can email us. We’ll get back to you quickly if we like your idea and if we want to hear more we’ll back it with further development funding.