True crime and prestige docs have gone through a transformation over the past few years.

The appetite from streamers for crime has increased due to the stories crossing borders as they often involve high-stakes narratives and primal, universal aspects of human nature that chime with all audiences.

Meanwhile, premium films that bring a new dimension to popular subjects are also in demand.

True indie Sandpaper Films has carved out a niche as an indie that does both; bringing access and a new angle to cases and people that have gripped the public’s attention.

They include titles such as the forthcoming series about the two trials of Karen Read - following which she was acquitted of the second-degree murder and motor vehicle manslaughter of her boyfriend John O’Keefe - or with global subjects that the public are curious about, such as Taylor Swift in feature documentary Taylor.

Founded in 2020 by award-winning executive producers Henry Singer and Susannah Price, Sandpaper is renowned for covering complex court cases and negotiating difficult subjects, such as the case involving the death of Jason Corbett in A Deadly American Marriage for Netflix.

But how do you finance and cashflow projects with such a long gestation time? And how can you find topics that appeal to the global streamers?

For The Indie Hustle, Singer - whose credits include acclaimed docs such as 9/11: The Falling Man, Baby P: The Untold Story and The Trial of Ratko Mladić - discusses the future of Sandpaper and lays out his and Price’s roadmap for growth.

So read on to discover:

• How to navigate the economics of complicated premium docs

• Going beyond the ‘ripped from the headlines’ films

• Sandpaper’s expansion blueprint

• Funding sources for passion projects

Today’s economics for premium docs

To state the obvious, investigative projects require careful financial juggling and supportive relationships with streamers and broadcasters.

Budgets can overrun when you’re covering long-running court cases that are complex and get delayed.

One of Sandpaper’s commissions from Channel 4 is Nine O’Clock Service, which follows allegations of abuse involving a dance and club music youth movement in 1980s/90s Sheffield and the Church of England, and which can’t be released until the conclusion of ongoing criminal proceedings.

“We seem to gravitate towards films and series that end up having appeals and retrials,” says Sandpaper’s co-founder Henry Singer, pointing out that Netflix show A Deadly American Marriage took three and a half years to make.

The trust levels built up with Netflix have helped during the making of the Karen Read series in the US, which is not quite yet delivered but will hopefully air later this year, and has taken more than three years to make.

It is “an incredibly strong story” that occurred in Massachusetts near where Singer grew up and was brought to the company “by a young filmmaker that wanted to work with us, who had had quite a lot of access already”. But it required a great deal of sensitivity, particularly as the case became more high-profile due to Read’s supporters on social media.

Netflix has been, “really good and really supportive”, giving “very good and very clear notes” and “we’re really proud of it..it has the sort of Sandpaper DNA in it, which is through the storytelling… it’s very layered and provokes some significant questions.”

“Trust is paramount,” agrees Singer, both with the contributors in his and his co-founder Susannah Price’s films and also with the broadcasters/streamers. Honest and collaborative relationships are key.

He acknowledges that “it’s hard to make the money work. We are lucky; we’ve got an incredible head of production and an incredible finance director and they manage to find a way of doing it.”

Also, “we have very supportive commissioners, because with this kind of work sometimes you go over budget and we have strong enough relationships whereby they always come in at the end and support us.”

With the inevitable knock-on effect on cashflow if a project is tied to an ongoing legal case, it’s vital to run a lean operation, particularly in the current financial climate.

Singer acknowledges that “it’s challenging” but “we run a tight ship and you have to. There’s a certain amount of financial juggling…but we have weekly meetings about it.”

“We had a couple of squeaky bum moments when we first started and it’s always a challenge but that’s standard for any fully independent company.”

He points out the industry has “changed a lot” since Sandpaper was founded six years ago and particularly so within the last six months.

However, “we’re sort of used to adversity because we go after projects that are difficult and that are difficult to get off the ground.”

Takeaways: run a tight core team; cultivate strong relationships with commissioners to navigate budget overruns; have weekly meetings about finances

Beyond the ‘ripped from the headlines’ docs

Within genres, find your niche, advises Singer.

True crime and pop-culture documentary genres are saturated with quick-turnaround shows but Sandpaper’s strategy is to look beyond the headlines and add something new, such as examining the broader societal issues around the subject.

As it did with its docs Doom Scroll: Andrew Tate & The Dark Side of the Internet and Groomed: The Truth Behind the Lie, both for Sky.

In the latter complex case about a grooming gang in Barrow, Singer points out it took over three years to make but Sky “was incredibly supportive, hanging in there with us, keeping the development going.”

He says that in the development world, it’s often said that “what people are all looking for is ‘ripped from the headlines’” programmes.

Whilst many of those kinds of true crime shows are “well made”, the genre is important and can generate deeper films as “it’s in the extremes that you really learn something about human nature”.

So he and Price, who he is keen to point out deserves equal credit for Sandpaper’s success, “look beyond a headline and try to excavate a little more deeply.”

This analytical depth often stands it in good stead with access to contributors, some of whom have had Sandpaper recommended to them due to its track record.

“I think they feel the integrity in the work. Anybody can write a good email, anybody can come across really well in a meeting, but [we say] watch some of our work because that’s the best way to judge a company and a filmmaker.”

One of Sandpaper’s upcoming transmissions is the case of 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck in Stacey Dooley: Death in the Barracks for BBC3. Due to air this autumn, it is still being edited and has unprecedented access to Beck’s family, friends and former Army colleagues.

Ongoing proceedings make it difficult for Singer to say much but he says it asks broader questions too, such as what’s it like to be a woman in the military.

Takeaways: think how you can elevate popular subjects; build a distinct editorial brand for your company; maintain integrity as it’s your calling card to future participants

Expansion blueprint

With UK public service broadcaster budgets tightening, many are looking beyond traditional domestic commissions in order to build sustainable revenue pipelines, particularly in the US as so many streamers and broadcasters are ultimately owned by American companies.

Although Singer and Price enjoy working with UK outlets they want Sandpaper to grow, so they’re actively looking to expand the company’s footprint in the US.

Singer explains that what’s happening “to the BBC budgetarily and to Channel 4 is for me and for most of the industry… worrisome and sad because they’re extraordinary broadcasters”.

So to mitigate the cuts, “co-productions is obviously one route,” and he explains the pair are planning a trip to America where “we want to go meet the Hulus, Amazon US and Peacock.”

“We really want to work with some other American streamers...taking our brand, if I can call it that... and internationalising or maybe Americanising it. Because a lot of the work now is [with] the streamers who are sort of American-based largely. I hear wonderful things about working with Hulu, for example. I’m just hoping our reputation over here will carry over there.”

Like others, Sandpaper is also looking at diversifying and increasing its revenue streams with branded and short-form content.

“You’ve got to have a mixed portfolio…We are thinking about digital and short-form. That excites me. I love the idea of…working with young filmmakers who can shoot a short-form doc on their iPhones…As much as the business has changed, it’s also opening doors of opportunity.”

He says that when he and Price started the company, “this shows how naive I was: I thought, you start a company, you start execing [and] a lot of your life is spent having long lunches with authors of books and meeting people for cocktails at fancy hotels.”

“You have so little time when you exec and you run a company. It’s ridiculous. So that hasn’t happened,” he laughs.

But he acknowledges that is partly because, “we take on ambitious work”. They chose Sandpaper as a name “because we want our work to always have a bit of a rub, a little bit of an edge to it and it to be sort of beautifully made; seamless and sanded - showing the best of the craft. And so that takes a lot of time.”

Takeaways: explore co-productions with US streamers; diversify your portfolio; there is opportunity in the changes to the industry

Funding sources for passion projects

Another long-running enterprise of Sandpaper’s is the participatory climate change film My Planet Now.

The ground-breaking project began four years ago and asked for people to upload their experiences of how the breakdown is affecting them via a specially-created portal.

Singer explains, “naively I thought this would be an easy film to finance” due to concerns over the planet’s future.

However, My Planet Now required piecing together a jigsaw puzzle of funding from pre-sales and other sources.

“We’ve got some broadcasters on board who have pre-bought it, including the BBC,” says Singer, plus there is “soft money” from three foundations.

A complex piece to edit, he says My Planet Now is “nearly done”. But “it’s an example of how hard it is to do certain kinds of films in this environment. The last sort of labour of love I did was The Trial of Ratko Mladić and I remember saying to people, ‘I think I spent more time trying to raise finance than actually making the film!’”.

The “biggest financier has been the Wellcome Trust” and Singer is appreciative that, “they’ve hung with us, they’ve been great” but there is still more to do as “we still have to raise some money for it.”

Though at times the project has been hard, Singer says it concludes that people can make a difference to the future of the climate and “you really need political power to make a difference…I think it’s going to be really good and I hope it makes a difference.”

Despite the challenges and time it takes to raise the money, Singer adds, “I want to continue to try to make, potentially, cinema docs with a soft funding route. We’re not naive about it. It’s really hard. But we want that to continue to be part of our portfolio.”

Takeaways: utilise grants from foundations for complex passion projects; explore other ‘soft money’ sources

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The world of TV development has always been an amorphous domain. But in recent years, there has been more dialogue breaking down its intrinsic problems and pushing for change. In 2025, for example, producer Emma Young spoke openly about the lack of credit given to her development exec partner, whose idea eventually became the unscripted Netflix series Celebrity Bear Hunt.

For format creators, what has always been a murky area is now becoming a minefield in a risk-averse climate for unscripted. For every imported format that has thrived, such as The Traitors, Gladiators or The Assembly, there is a Survivor UK or The Summit that fails to take off. (Viewers will likely give The Box a little more time before reaching a verdict.) Meanwhile, original British IP series tend to be hit or miss with audiences. Secret Genius was a strong offering from Channel 4 that will return for an extended second series, but the Graham Norton-fronted The Neighbourhood fell flat for ITV.

Audiences are deeply fragmented and broadcasters are contending with the distractions of social video. The workers who bear the brunt of the collateral damage? Development execs.

At last month’s Edinburgh TV Festival, producers discussed the dearth of recent original British unscripted formats to land in the UK and travel around the world and the pressures that teams are under. A key takeaway was that development is steadily encroaching into unpaid pre-production. A weakened industry puts power dynamics in sharp relief and, in this case, producers don’t have much of a choice: if they want the commission, they need to go above and beyond - and then keep going.

“There is a strange, unwritten issue around how much free work somebody should be willing to do before it breaks them and when it comes to smaller production companies, it’s not just breaking the individual; it’s breaking businesses as well,” says Faraz Osman, founder of Gold Wala, which recently produced LumoTV’s BSL dating show Hold My Hand.

Osman, who was part of Edinburgh’s Formats Under Pressure panel, went a step further and presented a plan designed to bring more accountability in commissioning. His idea of giving every commissioner an allotted budget to greenlight whatever ideas they like galvanised the Edinburgh audience and found support with fellow panelists.

Osman spoke to The Indie Hustle about some of the key issues raised in the session and his master plan to make development great again.

Read on to learn:

• Why development teams are taking on more unpaid tasks to get to greenlight

• How a lack of rules and transparency in development is squeezing producers

• How an allocation of budget could empower commissioning editors

• Why commissioners need to stop managing upwards

The unwritten rules

Every part of the industry is being squeezed, says Osman, but the brunt of the cost is being shouldered by production companies “who are just hoping that one win will mitigate all of those costs” and get a show over the line.

But with actual production budgets being squeezed as well, the executive says the time has finally come to start getting honest about development costs.

Producers are finding that commissioners are asking them to complete more tasks before getting to greenlight. This includes making endless versions of a deck, tweaking game ideas and sometimes even casting via taster tapes.

The rule of thumb ought to be that if you’re extending yourself to deliver some kind of asset that is a tangible item, that should be charged for. “You can probably push back and say, ‘Yes, sure we can do that, but this is going to cost you,’” explains Osman. “But there is always this weird dance between commissioners and production companies of having to do certain things to keep your idea alive, or you just get that quick ‘no.’”

Producers underline that there are “no rules” in development, particularly as paid development is scarcer and this can allow commissioners to take advantage of indies.

“We need to figure out how we can meet the challenges of development in a way that is not just about a commissioner asking for more and more and more off spec, and a production company just having to deliver that in the hope that they might get a green light at the end of it,” says Osman. “The risk is loaded on the production company almost to quite a breaking point.”

Takeaways: more production companies are shouldering the burden of lengthy and costly development processes; commissioners keep asking for more assets before greenlight

The commissioner’s CV

While it’s common for development executives to work in-house at US broadcasters, that practice hasn’t translated to the UK. Now British producers are making a case as to why it should.

“Working with internal development teams makes sense because if they’re selling it upwards [at the broadcaster], they can then work out what’s needed to sell the idea upwards and they can bear some of the costs and we can bear some of the costs,” says Osman.

A commissioner’s experience coming into the role can be critical. Someone with no prior experience of development is probably more likely to ask for assets without paying for them. However, some execs can also go too far in the direction where they use indies to get their own ideas away.

“It’s fine if you have the conversation and it’s laid out that [the commissioner] has had this idea and wants to work with you on it,” says Osman. “But when you present an idea to a commissioning editor and then they change it into what they want to do, that can be tricky.”

A commissioning editor doesn’t need to have the whole gamut of experience that a producer might have. But they do need to have a full understanding of timelines and what’s realistic for a production company to deliver, says Osman.

Ultimately, it’s challenging to know where the lines of good conduct are because “development is still the woolliest area of the TV industry,” he says.

Takeaways: it’s worth looking up the experience of a commissioning editor as it will likely dictate your development process and what is asked of you; commissioners must be mindful of what an indie is up against

Osman’s ‘20% challenge’ to combat ‘managing upwards’

There’s a sense that more commissioners are managing upwards, meaning they are trying to meet their individual boss’s expectations and tastes, rather than think of the company’s needs as a whole. Many believe this is holding the sector back from pushing through truly original ideas.

“I’ve seen commissioning editors get frustrated that they want to do something, but they’re getting blocked by having to sell it upwards, and then production companies get frustrated because the arbiter of their ideas is not necessarily the person they’ve spoken to,” says Osman. “That is causing real problems.”

His challenge is for programming chiefs to empower commissioners by setting aside 20% of their budget to allow them to get their own ideas away.

“What if you had a channel that said, ‘If you come and become a commissioning editor with us, it would be expected that a certain part of your budget is yours and you back that idea and you take responsibility for it,’” says Osman. “If a commissioning editor really believes in it, then it goes into that pot, and they don’t need to feel like they have to change the idea to meet the tastes and sensibilities of their boss or their boss’s boss.”

Empowering commissioners at channels would go a long way to improve relationships with the production sector, says Osman.

“If we started seeing that happening, we could then tailor our ideas to certain commissioning editors because we know that that person has got a similar taste or vibe to a particular idea that we’ve got and we can target it at them,” he says. “Whereas currently what’s happening is it’s just a relationship thing. Who is it that responds to your emails that you can get on board and can send you and your idea up the chain?”

Takeaways: if you empower commissioners to greenlight shows according to their own tastes, it will unlock more creative pitches and ideas

“We don’t know where we’re meant to go”

There are drastic changes to commissioning ahead at broadcasters such as Channel 4, where the shock merger of the documentaries, fact ent, reality and entertainment and specialist factual teams into one commissioning unit is expected to result in a significant reduction in commissioning roles.

Meanwhile, a Change.org petition targeting the BBC is making the rounds and demanding a “more informed level of scrutiny on all BBC content and commissioning personnel.” Effectively, it is calling for an independent body that would assess the decisions of the commissioning teams against the broadcaster’s remit. The petition currently has more than 1,000 signatures.

These movements suggest there is disruption ahead in the commissioning landscape. Osman falls short of demanding KPIs of BBC commissioners, as the petition is suggesting, but he points out that more clarity is needed from PSBs if they’re to keep pace with streaming rivals - many of whom, rather ironically, are abundantly clear about what they’re looking for.

“They take all of your rights. They expect the best of the best of the best, and they don’t want to see anything else uncompromising in that way,” says Osman. “And there have been conversations about how they only work with the biggest production companies because of the levels of production values they expect, and they’re not there to train people; they’re there to satisfy their subscribers and that’s what they do.”

But on the other side, particularly where public money is involved, “the BBC and Channel 4 are becoming less clear, and I think we need to have a much clearer understanding.”

Osman believes, for instance, that in the unscripted space all first-run shows should only be commissioned from British-owned indies and “weighted towards regional indies, indies with diverse backgrounds and smaller indies.”

Companies like Gold Wala, he says, should not be expected to compete with behemoths like Studio Lambert for commissions. “Because companies like ours don’t know where we’re meant to go,” he says. “If we’re not meant to go to Channel 4 or the BBC, where are we meant to go?”

Takeaways: more clarity is needed around the rules of engagement for indies working with the BBC and Channel 4

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Some significant changes relating to issues around AI are on the horizon.

In today’s global market, keeping ahead of the different AI regulations across multiple territories is tough.

Ethical concerns are being raised over how it is being used in the creative industries following stories such as Chinese actors being replaced by AI doubles using TikTok owner ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0.

Responsible use of the new tech is paramount, not just for public service media, but for producers who want consumers to trust their content.

More regulation and guidance are also due to be discussed over the next few weeks in the UK, most immediately the issue of copyright in a talk between Adolescence writer and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) president Jack Thorne and Baroness Beeban Kidron on Sunday at London’s South Bank Centre.

Further announcements are due to be made too by bodies such as AIMICI, which is working on the issue of how consumers might be informed about how AI has been used in the making of programmes they are watching.

To help you through this shapeshifting topic, this week we’ve spoken to some of those at the forefront of the evolving conversation and lobbying in the UK and Europe around AI regulation and guidance, including AIMICI, the European Broadcasting Union, union Equity and WGGB.

Read on for snapshots about:

• The latest thinking on monitoring and disclosure of AI use to the industry and viewers

• AI protections in the PACT/Equity agreement and regulation around ‘personality rights’

• How the EU AI act and new SAG-AFTRA deal might affect you

• Copyright and government lobbying

Monitoring and disclosing AI

At the Edinburgh TV Festival Particle 6 chief executive and AI character Tilly Norwood creator Eline van der Velden was refreshingly frank about the use of AI, joking that, “saying you’re working with AI is like saying you have an STD” as “no one’s wanting to admit that”.

The fear of reputational damage by using technology that could replace humans and put humans out of work is real.

But AI is here to stay in various shapes and forms (van der Velden said she’s signed “hundreds of NDAs” with organisations wanting to use her AI expertise) so what can you do to use it responsibly?

AIMICI - which bills itself as the “leading responsible AI governance organisation for the screen industry” is at the forefront of the latest thinking and training.

Its managing director Kathryn Webb said China’s use of digital doubles to replace actors might seem a long way away but she stressed the “global element” of AI.

“Conversations in the UK and even in the US sometimes do often go, ‘Oh China’s it’s own thing…they’ve got their own way of approaching things’ but the reality is it’s an interconnected world, and often…the highest quality models available are coming from China, and they may continue to come from China.”

She pointed out China does have some regulations too that balances the technical aspect of all that is possible through AI, but said that, “it’s not surprising to me that where the technology has started to come in” is in low-budget, vertical video micro-formats because “the focus is very much on cost saving, not so much on creative excellence.”

Webb says, “people will continue to use AI and our hope and our hypothesis in terms of what we do is we focus on two key things to try and help make that be done in a more responsible way.”

The first thing is training in using AI ethically, which AIMICI provides, plus advice on governance and strategy.

“But essentially you can’t really have these conversations until everybody’s on the same page about what these different technologies can do, what they are, where the money goes and also what kind of checks and balances can be put in place to help prevent any misuse or irresponsible use.”

In addition, AIMICI is workshopping how the screen industry can report their AI use and signal it to viewers on-screen.

Details about that are due to emerge very soon.

Webb explains: “We’re encouraging a kind of unified, industry standardised type of disclosure…to put onto production”, similar to the BAFTA Albert sustainable production monitoring and reporting system.

“The misconception is that you can simply share a minimum amount of information about what the AI is and that kind of does the job. I think that there is a lack of good process and industry standardised process within productions about documenting and communicating AI use.”

She adds that AIMICI has also created “this kind of tiered system of documents, so that you can still have it as an internal reference; you have something that can be shared with distributors and others, if needed.”

Takeaways: keep up to date with global AI regulation as industry is interconnected; if you’re not already, start implementing the monitoring and recording of your AI use

PACT/Equity agreement and personality rights

Something to be aware of is that union Equity is close to securing a brand new clause around AI protections and uses in the forthcoming Equity/PACT Agreement.

Representatives from Equity were in California earlier this year observing and supporting US union SAG-AFTRA in their negotiations where they secured some protections on AI.

Expect some of that to feed into the new Equity PACT Agreement, which should be going out to members this autumn and will be the first time AI protections for performers will be written into a collective agreement, along with usual things like holidays, pay etc.

Also, more widely, Equity is calling for greater protections to be brought in, not just for actors, but for everybody.

The union thinks the government is due to open a consultation this autumn on ‘personality rights’, which it has been specifically asking ministers to do.

Equity has done a comprehensive policy briefing on the issue, that lays out how to protect both performers in terms of their likeness, voice and movement, but also protect anybody’s likeness or voice from being scraped for digital avatars.

“We believe people should have the rights over themselves, so they can’t be turned into deep fakes online etc” explained an Equity spokesperson.

From an industrial point of view, this is actors’ work: their bodies, voices and motion are the tools they use to create their performance and sell their work.

Another thing to note, if you’re considering turning some of your IP into a video game, the video games industry does not have a collective agreement with Equity, despite receiving tax relief from government.

The union has heard of “horror stories” from actors doing motion capture work in studios and, in order to protect their personality rights, believes tax credit arrangements that exist should be linked to minimum terms and conditions for workers in that industry as well, so watch that space.

Also, increasingly there are companies, such as Synthesia, where you can buy AI avatars for your content..

Do your due diligence which outfit you choose if you are buying a digital double as Equity has heard of some actors who have sold their likeness via motion capture to disreputable AI operators and found their avatars “end up promoting content that they would never in a million years have done in real life.”

So check the avatar you’re buying is from a company that creates and distributes them responsibly.

Takeaways: AI protections are due to appear in the forthcoming PACT/Equity agreement; a government consultation on ‘personality rights’ is expected

Overseas AI regulation and deals

The key agreements to look at are the AI protections in the new SAG-AFTRA deal and the EU AI Act.

In the US, SAG-AFTRA members have approved a new four-year contract that means AI performers are only allowed to be used on a production if they bring “significant additional value” compared with a real actor or their digital double.

Webb thinks that, “a lot of people have been kind of caught off-guard” by the EU AI Act “because it’s been talked about for so long” so “we’ve been working to translate that down into, as a producer, as an actor or as someone working on a production, what does that mean and what does it mean now for your day-to-day?”

The act came into force in 2024 but it is being implemented in phases. An important one began in August that covers transparency. According to the EU, the AI Act “introduces specific disclosure obligations to ensure that humans are informed when necessary to preserve trust.”

Public service media needs to be and usually is ahead of the game on using new tech responsibly. The European Broadcasting Union, whose members are all the main PSM providers in Europe and which runs the Eurovision Song Contest, has been instrumental in setting standards. Last year it published a blueprint on how to harness AI and on “promoting the use of artificial intelligence for the social good.”

As the document said: “AI can significantly support and enhance human creativity by freeing up time, allowing creators to explore new storytelling techniques, increase accessibility and enhance cultural diversity… [But] it must foster rather than diminish the integrity and diversity of human expression.”

EBU IP Senior Legal Counsel Michele Evangelista says when it comes to protecting the copyright of your content, there are certain things you should remember.

One is that a robot crawler is “not allowed to copy content” on your website, “but you cannot actually prevent it from doing so. It’s a flag; it’s not a shield. So basically, you communicate to the crawler that it is not allowed to copy content on the website, but you cannot actually prevent it from doing so.”

However that flag can help you prove the content was taken without consent should the issue progress to court.

Another important element of AI being discussed by the EU, says Evangelista, is the use of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

Whereas traditional AI large language models are based on what they have learnt through training (ie reading text and data to accumulate knowledge and then giving answers based on that) RAG directs the LLM to find relevant information from trusted, knowledgeable, pre-determined sources.

It’s kind of like the equivalent of asking an expert university professor a question or [if using a RAG model] asking them the same question but allowing them first to check the most respected, up-to-date sources.

Even if you’re not in the news, current affairs or factual genres it’s worth knowing about these new ways AI are being used to provide answers to people’s questions as what the LLM provides to their queries might be based on or about one of your shows.

As Evangelista explains: “There is not fully-fledged reproduction. It’s not a copy because you don’t engage the reproduction right according to copyright law. So now they’re starting to discuss this issue in the European Union, how to deal with this unauthorised exploitation, which is difficult to categorise into one of the traditional copyrights.”

Takeaways: agreements are evolving over the use of AI performers/presenters; AI models’ new ways of working are happening faster than regulation

Copyright is key

Expect AI in scriptwriting to be on the news agenda.

Authorship in the Age of AI is the title of writer and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain president Jack Thorne’s talk with Baroness Beeban Kidron on Sunday 13 September at the South Bank Centre in which he is taking “an urgent look at what AI means for the future of storytelling, writing and our imaginations.”

His talk will explain that “copyright is not just for lawyers, it is a vital protection against future incursion” and, according to the WGGB, it’s expected that he will argue that “with the cultural industries becoming ever more crucial to the UK’s economy” there needs to be “an urgent look at where we go next” and “what we need from the government and the industry to get there.”

The AI issue is also being raised at the TUC Congress, which starts the same day.

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain General Secretary Ellie Peers said: “We will be talking about how AI is transforming the concept of ‘authorship’ and the most crucial issue of all – copyright.

“Jack Thorne and Baroness Kidron will be flipping the debate from a focus on protecting the assets of those at the top, to discuss how copyright might protect the industry’s entry points for the future - encouraging people to create and tell stories even as AI evolves.”

Takeaways: protections for writers from AI is going to be on the news agenda; ensure you are up to speed on copyright issues

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We’re all acutely aware of the challenges facing the sector right now, and Everyone TV’s report last month, by Oliver and Ohlbaum, warned that the UK production sector faces a further ‘spiral of decline’ if PSB commissioning continues to fall. It also highlights that 76% of all indie groups commissioned by PSBs are small indies.

So where are we in this spiral of decline and how healthy is the small indie market right now?

Today The Guardian reports on Indielab's analysis - and in this piece I set out the full picture.

At Indielab we regularly analyse the financial health of UK indies. We have been through Companies House filings for 203 active small independent producers - the segment that, according to the O&O report, make up 76% of all indie groups commissioned by PSBs. The picture is stark.

In this year’s analysis, as at August 2026, of the 203 companies in our pool, 114 (56%) saw their net assets (reserves) fall over the three-year period. 83 companies (40%) lost more than 30% of their reserves; 63 (31%) lost more than half. With a small indie now on average holding just £42,000 in reserves - a single delayed commission, a production overrun, or a series put on hold after delivery could threaten their survival.

At this rate of decline the analysis suggests 40% will be at risk of closure within 2 years.

The small producers O&O cites in its report make up a significant part of the UK ecosystem. But they are also the most financially exposed. When commissioning spend falls, small producers feel it first and hardest - and our data shows that the sector’s health is steadily being eroded, year on year.

Not all of the picture is bleak. 85 companies (42%) in our panel grew their reserves over the same period.

What distinguishes these companies is not luck. They have built business models suited to today’s market: diversifying revenue streams beyond primary commissions, developing co-production partnerships, and reducing their dependence on any single broadcaster. They demonstrate that commercially resilient independent production companies are achievable - even in this environment. The question for the sector is how to help more companies get there, and that requires sustained investment in the skills, knowledge and support that enable small producers to build for the long term.

We have seen many notable closures across the sector in the last two years - from small independents including Dare Pictures, Duck Soup Films and Proper Content – and we know of many more companies that have quietly closed or mothballed outside of those headlines. Our data strongly suggests this trend will accelerate.

This matters beyond the balance sheets of individual companies. As the O&O report suggests, the small indie pipeline is where the next generation of significant producers comes from. If small companies do not survive long enough to grow, that pipeline narrows. And if the pipeline narrows, UK television loses the breadth, diversity and creative risk-taking that makes it valuable - at home and internationally.

Two things need to happen. First, the PSB environment needs to be protected. The government must work with the sector on reforms that strengthen rather than weaken public service broadcasting. Indielab supports that call.

Second, and separately: PSBs with a statutory duty to support independent production need to consider what that duty really means in practice and whether they are currently meeting it.

If this unmanaged decline continues, it will be the result of a failure to act while the evidence was sitting in plain sight.

About the analysis

Indielab regularly analyses the financial health of the UK indie TV sector using net asset data from public filings at Companies House, tracked across a three-year window. The current analysis covers 203 active UK independent TV production companies. Net assets (assets minus all liabilities) is the primary metric: it represents the financial buffer a company can draw on to survive a gap in income. It is also the only figure consistently available across companies of this size, most of which file abridged accounts. Individual net asset positions may vary for a variety of reasons, but tracked across 203 companies the trend is clear. Data as at August 2026.

Amelia Dimoldenberg was often name-dropped by YouTube executives at last week’s Edinburgh TV Festival as an exemplary British talent who has assiduously built a brand on the platform. But the Chicken Shop Date mastermind is increasingly going against the grain of what’s expected of the creator economy.

“I have never wanted to be someone who is posting weekly,” she said in Edinburgh. “That’s maybe where I differ from other creators, because there are a lot of others who are posting different types of content to me who feel very much bound to releasing weekly or biweekly.”

But Dimoldenberg, who opened the festival on August 24 with an In Conversation event, has always valued quality over quantity, a strategy that she believes has added to the longevity of her YouTube series, which has been running for 12 years.

“If it was weekly, I don’t think it would be around for as long,” she said. “I would get bored of it. The audience would get bored of it. So, in a way, one of the greatest strengths of the show has been that I randomly post, and people hopefully are excited by that.”

While many in the TV industry are trying to break into YouTube, Dimoldenberg, who has interviewed everyone from Elmo and Andrew Garfield to Cher and Paul McCartney on her show, is doing the reverse: pushing for her big break in TV and film. She’s in development on a Skins-style drama for the BBC and is writing and starring in a romantic comedy based on her real experiences on Chicken Shop Date for Amazon MGM. The latter is produced by Will Ferrell’s indie, Gloria Sanchez Productions, which made the film Booksmart.

And yet even with these projects on the go, Dimoldenberg is adamant that she’ll always work for herself. “I hope to continue to self-fund projects long into the future because it’s important to me to be able to just go out and make something,” she said.

In a wide-ranging interview at Edinburgh, Dimoldenberg unpacked her business playbook and the strategies that have paid off for her as a digital creator.

Read on to discover:

• Why Chicken Shop Date will never be sponsored

• How to be selective with brands and make partnerships that are right for your vision

• Why posting an unedited, 40-minute-long interview makes Dimoldenberg “feel ill”

• What makes traditional film and TV deals so attractive to her at this point in time

Keeping the show ‘pure’ from brands

For many creators and production companies venturing online, brand partnerships are essential to keeping afloat financially. Yet that involvement can often dilute an editorial vision because brands often have requirements of their own to fulfil.

Dimoldenberg has done major commercial campaigns with the likes of Olay and M&S over the course of her career. It’s where she makes the majority of her money. “But I don’t do deals via Chicken Shop Date on the platform because I want to be in complete creative control,” she said.

“I don’t want to compromise my art,” she said, noting that she’s happy to “bend the creative” to work with a client and often does so on other projects.

“But with Chicken Shop Date, I just want that to be pure,” she said. “I want that to be just exactly what I want it to be, and I think that’s another reason why it’s lasted so long: because I’m not answering to anyone.”

Each episode costs roughly £4,000 and Dimoldenberg can generally make that money back on AdSense, YouTube’s partner programme for creators to earn ad revenue on the platform. The money that is earned is re-invested back into growing the brand.

“From the very moment I started making money with brands, I’ve always just thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to use that money, I’m going to put it back into my creative pot and I’m going to be able to self-fund,’” said Dimoldenberg.

However, there are always exceptions to her rule. One recent brand-funded series on her YouTube channel, for example, is Passenger Princess with F1, which the creator labelled as a “seamless” partnership. The series features Dimoldenberg getting into a car with various F1 drivers who are ostensibly teaching her how to drive. What appeals to her about that partnership, she said, is the access, because sports stars are notoriously difficult to book due to their schedules and reticence at unpaid appearances.

As a result, Passenger Princess is a symbiotic relationship: “I need the access, and I’m giving [F1] an entertainment format that is bridging the gap between their younger and older audiences, and having space on YouTube and collaborating with me as well,” she said.

You can collaborate with brands “really well across all social media platforms,” she assured, but you have to make sure you’re not sacrificing on the creative and that you align from the get-go on what your objectives are.

“My team and I are very particular when a deal comes over,” she said. “We go back and forth for a while, and things might be easier if you just say ‘yes’ to X amount of deliverables or whatever creative it is, without reworking it internally. But we do the opposite, so things can take a long time to get over the line sometimes.”

Takeaways: don’t work with brands if you want to maintain complete creative control; use brand-generated revenue to reinvest back into your passion project; some brand partnerships make sense if each party gets something substantial out of it

Kill your darlings

Chicken Shop Date episodes shoot for around 40 minutes, but are always edited down to under 10. Dimoldenberg said the edit is her favourite part of the entire process, “which is why I’ve always been very interested in narrative and storytelling in a broader sense.”

However, the idea of putting an unedited, full interview “out like a podcast makes me feel ill,” she continued. “That’s just not what I’m interested in at all. I’m interested in shaping and crafting something. So the edit is really important to me. And in terms of what I choose to edit out, I often edit out a lot of the sincere moments.”

Dimoldenberg joked that if anyone’s being serious or sincere, “or saying something that’s actually interesting, that’s going.”

“I’m very specific with what I think the show is, and if it doesn’t fit the brief of a Chicken Shop Date, and you can see it in another interview, then it’s not going to be included in my interview,” she said.

When asked about the metrics that are important to her, the creator surprised the audience by explaining how little time she spends looking at her analytics.

“I definitely look at views,” she said, “but I actually don’t ever go on the back end of YouTube. I spend way more time thinking about what guests we’re going to have on. That’s really important to me, the type of guests we can have on, the variety of guests and the level of guests, to me, is how I can often measure my success.”

Getting Jennifer Lawrence on the show while the actor was promoting her movie No Hard Feelings, for example, was a coup. “That was such a big measure of success,” said Dimoldenberg, because the Hollywood star did no other social video stops on her press tour.

“That’s something that I value. And then positive sentiment as well. I read a lot of the comments that I get on YouTube, and it’s amazing seeing what people say and interact with.”

Takeaways: editing is a major part of the process; Dimoldenberg doesn’t pore over Analytics but does look at view counts; success is measured by the level of celebrity she can attract

A Hollywood pivot

Despite her success on YouTube, where Dimoldenberg has 3.4 million subscribers, she said her ambition has always been to “make [her] own rom com.”

“I think, inadvertently, Chicken Shop Date has become my version of a rom com, simply because when I was 20, I couldn’t make a movie,” she said. “And I’ve always had dreams of writing a TV show, too. It’s not like it’s a new thing; it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.”

It may appear to be counterintuitive, but Dimoldenberg’s drive to break into film and TV underlines how some creators with significant digital followings can also still desire greater access and budgets. “Television and film offer things I can’t get right now - the infrastructure,” she said.

“Young people are watching YouTube for sure, but they’re also still watching so much television,” said Dimoldenberg. “They’re watching drama. They’re watching teen series. And I would love always to get into that world and collaborate with really smart people who are amazing at what they do in scripted.”

Her parting advice for execs in the room was to “keep taking risks.”

“People have become very risk averse and they don’t want to do something if it doesn’t have a lot of IP or it wasn’t a book first or if it’s not a remake,” said Dimoldenberg. “But audiences are always craving original ideas, and so I say don’t be afraid of those things.”

Meanwhile, for young creatives wanting to break through, “I would say hold your integrity and have that self-belief that your idea is important and that, if you believe in it, then it will get made. It might just take a lot longer than you think.”

Takeaways: a Hollywood movie and TV deal provides infrastructure Dimoldenberg can’t get on YouTube; keep taking creative risks; don’t forgo your integrity to get things made

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Amandaland producer Merman has created an enviable footprint in the UK and the US.

A true indie, its structure, company culture and ethos have allowed it to be agile and its hard work aligning its British and transatlantic offices has paid off, with a number of projects in the pipeline.

As well as working with streamers such as Apple and Netflix, co-founder Sharon Horgan has a first-look deal with HBO, which has led to the eagerly-anticipated Youth, out this autumn.

But in addition to premium scripted, Merman has also built up a reputation for collaborating with new young talent and for making prestige audio drama under the Arc brand on BBC Sounds. Its latest is Lena Headey’s gripping drama Intimacy and that audio strategy is paying dividends - more on which later.

But how has it expanded its reach, in the UK and abroad, and its branded content, without losing its distinct identity?

This week Merman’s managing director Rebecca Parkinson reveals the playbook for Merman’s success, one element of which is, “we have grown solidly and carefully. As we are a true indie the key has been to have a small core team and expand and contract when necessary, there’s only 13 of us and a mix of full and part-time.”

For The Indie Hustle this week we examine how Merman has diversified across TV, digital and audio, whilst expanding into the US.

So read on to discover:

• ​Merman’s transatlantic expansion

• Merman’s audio-to-TV pipeline

• ​Merman’s monetisation and branded models

• Why talent and culture are the key to survival

The transatlantic expansion playbook

Expanding into the competitive US market requires collaboration and co-operation but also talent pooling.

Whilst Merman’s UK and US offices operate under distinct heads of scripted - Faye Dorn in the UK and Stacy Greenberg in the US - the core leadership oversees a unified creative pipeline.

Managing director Rebecca Parkinson explains: “We’ve been working hard to align our US and UK offices so commissioning and project opportunities are maximised and we work as a team to bring all of our experience together.”

She stresses that although Dorn and Greenberg, “very much lead in their territory, it’s great to have the collaboration in the background.”

There are differences in operations within the two territories for the true indie: “Operationally the US has a slightly different model as we work with studios and are not handling day to day production but we’re not back seat creatives - our team were on the ground…on [Netflix comedy thriller] Vladimir ensuring the Merman tone was always present and supporting our fantastic showrunner Julia [May Jonas].”

Merman currently has “multiple drama developments with streamers” says Parkinson, as well as having been in production with HBO on Youth, which stars Sharon Horgan and is due on HBO Max next month. Horgan is also exec producing Apple TV+ original I’m Glad My Mom Died through Merman.

Merman’s MD explains that “while the business grew we took opportunities such as first look distribution deals and that has moved into a first look with HBO. But as Sharon has previously said this doesn’t hold us back in any way, we have a great creative relationship with HBO and they’re very clear and quick so our development process isn’t restricted in any way.”

Being pragmatic is vital in the current market: “Working with streamers can mean you are effectively a production services company and the ideal is of course to focus on true commissions to benefit from production fee and back end but it’s a challenging time in the industry so it’s also about finding the right home for a project which is a creative decision.”

As is diversifying: Merman now has a label with ex-Pulse Films exec Lucas Ochoa, called Siren and “which has more of a genre focus” but “we always have the Merman tone at the core of our projects.”

Takeaways: build slowly and carefully; if you open an outpost abroad ensure you align and collaborate across territories; be flexible to land the right commission; diversify under new labels

Audio to TV pipelines

Audio drama is increasingly serving as a development lab for prestige television, allowing indies to test complex narratives and build writer relationships at a fraction of the cost.

Following success with BBC Sounds’ People Who Knew Me (starring Rosamund Pike), Merman has doubled down on its audio strategy, using the Arc brand on BBC Sounds to establish an easily-recognisable ‘kitemark’ of quality for listeners, which Lena Headey’s show Intimacy sits under.

“Our audio strategy is incredibly important to us”, explains Parkinson - who joined the indie in 2018 as head of production - particularly in creating value long-term.

“People Who Knew Me is a great example of working with an emerging writer, producing an excellent series and using that as a launchpad for potential TV adaptation. They are obviously different fields but it’s a great crossover and a way to support a writer into working on longer form drama where story, plot and characterisation are enhanced and made much more complex to support the duration.” She adds: “Intimacy and another audio production we have just completed for BBC Sounds were chosen exactly for this reason - genuinely exciting ideas which we are very proud to have produced and absolutely have that Merman tone of having something to say.”

The rationale for having the shows under the Arc brand is it, “gives that indication of Merman so a listener will easily find our other audio dramas. We also have had incredibly hard working teams bringing exceptional talent on board - so Sharon and the Merman brand have been very helpful indeed in securing these.”

“Working on a lower budget such as the audio dramas is clearly incredibly challenging and not an immediately profitable endeavour but in the long term we see that as an investment in talent and the company.”

The strategy is paying off. Parkinson says Merman hopes, “we’ll be bringing these audio dramas to a TV audience in the future but we are not just exploring the drama space and have another regular podcast in the works so watch this space!”

Takeaways: use low-cost formats like audio to incubate long-form TV IP; leverage star talent and strong brand identity to elevate audio projects; audio can create long-term value through talent investment

Monetisation models and branded

How does Merman approach content strategy and monetisation across the different media formats such as traditional TV, streaming platforms, short-form digital IP, audio dramas and films?

“We don’t have any hard and fast rules,” is Parkinson’s response.

“On the whole our focus is not on co-productions but sometimes it’s hard to say no if the project is right. And every single project brings its own monetisation challenges - we’re certainly aware of how long it takes to recoup a distribution advance and see profits flowing through!”

She adds: “Commercially we’re still true to our scripted comedy background and very happy to be navigating the challenges of PSB financing with excellent relationships such as the BBC and Lionsgate.”

Sister company Merman Branded was set up in 2017 to bring in new revenue streams.

But the siblings often work together.

Parkinson explains: “While they [Branded] represent commercials directors, we are always looking at ways to cross pollinate.

“Van Wife for Women’s Aid was an excellent example, written by Ailbhe Keogan who we worked with on Bad Sisters, and directed by Rachel Stubbings.”

It was exec produced by Merman Branded along with Horgan and Dearbhla Walsh, the executive producer/director on Bad Sisters and was part of the Spot The Flags campaign, which brought attention to spotting the red flags of coercive, controlling and abusive behaviour.

“Bringing our talents together is really fruitful”, agrees Parkinson.

Takeaways: There is no ‘one size fits all’ model; collaborate across branded and non-branded divisions

Talent and culture are key

Unsurprisingly, with Horgan at the helm (she founded the company with Clelia Mountford in 2014) Merman’s focus on talent comes from the top.

Parkinson explains: “As a talent-led indie we are always focussed on ensuring our talent relationships are incredibly strong and respectful and having brilliant creatives returning to us with their projects is a delight and not something we take for granted.”

“The talent relationships we’ve built are absolutely critical and are so important for us all.”

This applies to the small core team that works for Merman.

“Our culture is also really important and we have a really hardworking team who are smart, kind and funny!”.

Its approach has paid off in the current, more barren production landscape.

Parkinson has these rallying words: “These are tough times but being open to finding creative and financial solutions is key - and being small and agile has certainly helped us navigate this, along with diversifying the content we produce.”

Takeaways: value your talent relationships; create a culture people want to be part of; small, agile true indies can diversify and thrive

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Vertical dramas may still be in development at most U.K. broadcasters, but Welsh PSB S4C is already underway on its second undertaking, the 60-part series Signal for its youth-skewing TikTok channel, Hansh.

Welsh indie Mojo Productions’ seven-part vertical drama Yr Alwad (Calls) for S4C broke ground in 2025 as the first vertical offering for a PSB. The TikTok-first series, which was nominated in the best short-form scripted category at July’s Broadcast Digital Awards, follows a series of phone calls between a mother and her son, who is targeted in a homophobic attack during a night out.

Its success spurred S4C’s young audiences commissioner Guto Rhun to go even bigger for a sophomore effort, which he envisioned as a 60-part romantic drama. “Guto and I carried on chatting, and he was like, ‘We’ve seen now that we can make them. They’re popular. There’s an audience for them. So, let’s go all out and do a long-running series,’” says Llyr Morus, director of Mojo.

While the U.K.’s production sector acknowledges the potential of vertical dramas, there are also some industry murmurs that they’re not necessarily compatible with the country’s scripted traditions. However, new stats from Singapore-based consultancy Media Partners Asia (MPA) underline how much money could be left on the table if the sector sleeps on the format.

MPA estimates that the vertical drama market outside China is worth $3.6 billion in 2026. This figure is expected to triple to $9.5 billion by 2031. Meanwhile, in that same time period, the U.S. market will climb from $1.5 billion to $3.7 billion. Eye-watering costs of acquisition (namely the marketing costs required to draw users) have traditionally hamstrung vertical content apps from making money. However, with leading app ReelShort expected to post a $40 million net profit this year for the first time, there are hopes the market is on more sustainable footing.

“The ever-growing popularity of vertical dramas is not going to be the death of long form,” says Morus, who has been filming Signal during Wales’ major arts festival, Eisteddfod. “They will develop and sit next to each other because there’s an audience for both, and one drives people to the other. It’s progress.”

This week, Indie Hustle caught up with the producer to discuss the opportunities in vertical drama for writers’ rooms and crews, and why they can help small indies to get their foot in the door in the digital world.

Read on to find out:

• Why PSBs can elevate the quality of vertical storytelling

• The per-minute budget for a 60-part series, and why smaller teams are a must

• Why every episode “needs to be a rollercoaster” to maintain interest

• The brief on every episode for the five-person writing team

• How digital commissions can let smaller companies come up

Why PSBs should experiment with vertical stories

The recurring CEO and secret millionaire tropes in vertical dramas, which are corny at best and misogynistic at worst, can give these shows a bad rep. But the advantage of PSBs engaging with the format is that, unlike a commercial app that needs a return on every story, monetisation isn’t a priority. As such, like Calls before it, Signal doesn’t have a “gamify” strategy behind the storytelling, and in turn, gets to stay far away from the tell-tale tropes.

“What we’ve been looking at are the viewing habits and structure of vertical dramas, rather than the content, so that it is a totally original story for us, and we’re not going down a rabbit hole of copying anything else,” says Morus.

The producer has researched the vertical trends out there, but insists the indie is “forging [its] own path” and putting a premium on storytelling.

“With a PSB, you feel people are more open to criticising the show, so there’s more scrutiny,” says the producer. “We’re striving for every episode, every character, every story beat to be the best that it can be, and not to let that be driven by any monetary discussion.”

The benefits of PSBs working in vertical formats, he says, is that this content can go out free to air, “and you’re not asking people to commit to yet another monthly subscription.”

“It’s great to see S4C being the first PSB to do it and breaking new ground,” he says. “I hope that other PSBs won’t be far behind, so that it does lead to other opportunities for production companies, but also for the audience who can have content that they want where they want it and not at a cost.”

Takeaways: No gamifying in PSB content means freed-up storytelling; more scrutiny on PSB vertical formats; audiences benefit from vertical content on free to air platforms

Budgets and crewing up

The budget on Signal is believed to be around £1,500 per minute, which is comparable to the digital commissioning tariffs of other broadcasters. (Channel 4.0, for example, pays between £1,000 and £3,000 per minute on digital originals.)

Altogether, for a 60-part series, with episodes ranging from one to three minutes in length, that means Signal could be looking at a maximum budget of £270,000 — an impressive figure for a vertical drama, which normally ranges from $100,000 (£74,000) to $300,000 (£222,000), although not every episode will stretch to three minutes.

The shooting schedule on the show is 16 days, and “you’re filming a lot more content per day than you would on a linear production,” says Morus.

It’s an intense shoot, because the crew is significantly smaller than a regular production, although all the major roles are still represented.

“People tend to be a one-person department,” says the producer, who is conscientious that vertical shows don’t water down storytelling and become “cheap television” that sacrifices craft.

“The thing that is very important to us is that it’s not cutting out professions,” says Morus. “Because if there are going to be more of these and more digital content, it’s important to protect the departments within production so that it’s not cutting corners and doing all we can without that team. It’s a case of teams are smaller.”

Takeaways: Signal has a healthy budget for a vertical format; vertical series have shorter but more intense shooting schedules; production uses one-person departments that will become more common

No panoramas: ‘Every episode needs to be a rollercoaster’

Mojo was given free rein to construct a story of its choosing that fit within Rhun’s brief of a YA romantic drama. The indie put a five-person writers’ room together, including an experienced screenwriter and four up-and-coming writers — a model the producer recommends for any vertical undertaking.

“That was a brilliant experience because you had the youthful target audience’s take on romance and dating today and how people communicate when they’re looking for a relationship, but also the experienced writer explaining how to structure the story,” says Morus.

Each writer pens 12 episodes, with each episode running up to a maximum of three minutes.

“We did an open casting call and a lot of new, inexperienced talent came in,” says Morus. “We’ve cast people who mostly have done nothing before, and it’s the same with the directors. We have four directors who have directed short films, but for whom this is their first professional production. It’s a fantastic training ground.”

That includes for the producers, too. Between the two productions, Morus describes a baptism of fire in the idiosyncrasies of vertical drama.

The first show, for example, had some sweeping, wide establishing shots of breathtaking Welsh landscapes. While the scenes might have elevated a regular linear drama, they were purged from the vertical edit because the audience loses interest so quickly.

“The commissioner said, ‘You need to get rid of the first 20 seconds.’ It looked absolutely beautiful, but those kinds of establishing drone shots and panoramas are not going to grab anybody’s attention,” says Morus.

The brief to writers while drafting storylines for the 60 episodes was to “start with something impactful, and come in hard on a close-up of somebody saying something where you’re going to go, ‘Oh, what was that about?’ so you’ll stick with it,” adds Morus. “And then you’ve got to keep on giving. Every episode needs to be a roller coaster to get you to that cliffhanger at the end of three minutes.”

Takeaways: wide and establishing shots don’t translate on vertical; writers need to start with close-ups of characters saying punchy dialogue

Digital commissions open doors to small indies

There may be enduring scepticism about the future of vertical drama in the U.K. and how the format is applied locally, but Morus says these commissions open doors for smaller companies who can cut their teeth and gain experience.

If you’re a small, new company, it’s very unlikely that a big broadcaster is going to give you a multi-million-pound drama series straight off “because it is a lot of money, and they’ve got to ensure they’re handing that money over to a trusted supplier,” he adds.

But digital content creates a more level playing field, and allows newer outfits to prove themselves and cut their teeth. The budgets are lower, “but the expectations and the standards aren’t any lower. So it allows more people to come into that market, and gives new companies a better way of proving themselves and breaking in,” says Morus.

Since Mojo was commissioned for Signal, the indie has fielded reach out from broadcasters in other countries.

“We’re in discussions regarding other dramas that could develop from this,” says Morus. “It’s something that is exciting, but for us, as drama producers, it’s just using our experience and our skills in creating drama in a different structure and format.”

Takeaways: smaller companies can cut their teeth on digital commissions with lower budgets but high standards for storytelling; success of Calls has led to international interest

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Beginning to think about what to pack for the Edinburgh TV Festival? What meetings to set up, who you might bump into and what sessions to attend?

Yes, the countdown has begun to the last TV Festival in the Scottish capital as the TV Foundation’s historic event moves to Manchester next year.

So this week we’re looking back to the future, with some learnings you can take forward from the highlights and recollections about the festival that took root with the inaugural James MacTaggart lecture in 1976.

That was simply a retrospective given by radical playwright John McGrath at the Edinburgh Film Festival about the work of the recently deceased TV producer MacTaggart.

But it sparked a debate about television that led to the establishment of the TV Festival the following year by then producer of Granada’s World in Action Gus (now Lord) MacDonald and the heads of Scottish Television and BBC Scotland.

MacDonald described it as a “wee gabfest” for a “wee handful” of programme-makers, where they “would be allowed to speak freely because their bosses wouldn’t be there”. But over the years the executives began attending because, as MacDonald said at the time, people were asking “huge questions, but there is no one here to answer them”. So it became an event during which “any researcher can just walk in and pick a fight with the director general”.

Former PACT chief executive John McVay recalls that did indeed happen one year: “I remember being in an audience and some freelancer asked [former BBC director general] John Birt this fantastic question and John Birt didn’t like it, and I was like, “That’s amazing. This is the boss of the BBC being taken to task by some sound engineer or whatever and I thought, ‘This is really interesting’.”

Over the last five decades Edinburgh has been the backdrop to key points in the history of indies: from lobbying for better terms of trade to the announcement that opened up huge parts of the BBC schedule to competition, and from programme ideas pitched in loos to the creation of production companies following boozy nights in The George Hotel’s bar; Edinburgh has seen it all.

So what can the festival’s past teach us about the future of the industry? And what have been the highs and the lows? To find out we’ve spoken to former Edinburgh TV Festival board directors Alan Clements and John Willis, ex-Festival CEO and director Lisa Campbell, Wall to Wall co-founder Alex Graham, Avalon co-founder Jon Thoday and ex-PACT chief executive John McVay.

Read on to learn:

• How to use Edinburgh TV Festival to your advantage

• Ways the festival has been a crucible for the creation of indies and ideas

• How Edinburgh can act as a barometer and catalyst

• What to learn from the best and worst MacTaggart speeches

• Edinburgh’s funniest moments and highlights

Using Edinburgh TV Festival to your advantage

There are many TV conferences nowadays but the word festival in Edinburgh’s title has been key, with the industry using it as a time to come together, celebrate and, crucially, debate the topics of the day.

Former festival board member and ex-Mentorn and Tinopolis boss John Willis explains that “it’s been a great institution because what it’s done has been a meeting point for all independent producers and at the same time the broadcasters and commissioners have also attended.

“So it’s one of the places - even if it was 2am in The George Hotel bar - where there was a direct contact, which is not easy through all the layers that sit between independent producers and the decision-makers inside broadcasters or streamers.

“It’s been a really important place for meeting and also lots of issues about the future of broadcasting have been aired. It’s a place to take the temperature really of where things are. Our industry has continuously evolved, changed and shifted, and Edinburgh is a good place to actually [discuss] ‘This is what might happen next’ and…provide a more direct relationship between commissioners and producers.”

It’s also been an event where “actual business things have happened”, says former festival board director and Two Rivers managing director Alan Clements. He and his wife Kirsty Wark hold a dinner each year and “for me it’s the most important thing we do as a company; it brings people together [as] what is always incredible to me is how many people in the industry don’t know other people in the industry…So [we] have somebody from Disney meeting somebody from Amazon meeting somebody from Channel 5.”

He points out that things have shifted away from The George bar since the hotel was refurbished and the industry has become more corporate with some streamer bosses now keeping more to themselves, but it still has a “democratic spirit” that provides you with a chance to “meet people that you’ve never met” in a way “that doesn’t happen” at some conferences.

Former PACT chief executive John McVay recalls a key draw for indies over the years was, the controllers and commissioners, “didn’t run away and hide with private dinners. It was much more egalitarian and much more accessible and porous and exciting because of that.”

But there still remains, “the serendipity; you never know who you’re going to bump into in a queue” and he has seen, “people pitching shows in toilets…I don’t know how welcome it is or if it actually works, but I’ve seen people do it at Edinburgh many times. And why not? Seize the moment.”

The festival can also provide a reality check. Who Do You Think You Are? creator Alex Graham points to a session by Troubleshooter presenter and businessman Sir John Harvey-Jones, in which he analysed three production companies and their finances and then, “famously excoriated indies for being ‘a lifestyle, not a business’, a phrase that entered the TV vocabulary and never left. I sat in the audience quietly congratulating myself for having dodged that particular bullet.”

Takeaways: look at the delegate list to decide who you want to target in session queues; seize the moment to introduce yourself to commissioners you don’t know; what can you learn as a business from the talks on offer

A crucible for the creation of indies and ideas

Many a collaboration and programme has been dreamt up at the festival. Clements recalls: “I watched Catchphrase being reborn over a whisky.”

He was at STV at the time with Liam Hamilton and they were having a drink with Jeremy Fox from DRG, who had the rights to Catchphrase.

“We were sitting having a late night whisky, and we went, ‘We should bring that back’. [Jeremy said] the family wanted to do a deal with ITV Studios, and I was like, ‘Don’t do that, do it with us!’ and that grew out of Edinburgh.”

The festival also provided a portent to one of the most successful companies, Clarkson’s Farm producer Expectation, founded by Tim Hincks and Peter Fincham.

In 2009 the pair (then at Endemol and ITV, respectively) played in a band called the Overnights for a contest at the festival called TV’s Got Talent. Hincks (who was chairing the festival’s executive committee) was on guitar, with Fincham on keyboards. It was so well-received the following year the pair returned to perform in The George with their new band No Expectation.

Footage from the show may be grainy but I can personally vouch they went down a storm. They subsequently played at Mipcom and Latitude so in 2017 it was no surprise when the pair started up a company together and called it a more optimistic version of their band name, Expectation.

Speaking from Edinburgh where he is watching talent at the main Festival and Fringe Thoday points out how the TV Festival has benefitted from being part of the wider global entertainment industry’s focus on the Scottish capital and thinks it is "a shame" it is moving to Manchester. “There are television executives from all over the world coming to Edinburgh today to try and find talent…and there are independent producers here all the time.

He concludes: “If the TV Festival hadn’t been in Edinburgh, I don’t think Taskmaster would have happened because that was how I got the executives to go and see it [when they were in town anyway for the TV festival].”

Takeaways: accept that invitation to drinks; future business relationships can be forged in the festival fire; TV is part of the UK entertainment eco-system

Edinburgh as a barometer and catalyst

You never know what’s round the corner at the festival, as the then BBC director general Greg Dyke showed in 2000 when Edinburgh was agog with the announcement he was moving the corporation’s 9pm news bulletin to 10pm to fill the slot left empty after ITV axed News at Ten.

Last year Channel 4 hit home against the issue of the rise of the streamers by coining the term “TV tourists” to describe Netflix’s commissioning of Adolescence.

Sometimes history repeats itself. Over two decades after they were hotly debated at Edinburgh before coming into force through the 2003 Communications Act, broadcasters’ Terms of Trade are a talking point again this year following the industry consolidation that has led to the creation of mega-indies such as Banijay and All3Media. Clements says that another “big turning point” for indies was when the BBC announced in 2014 it was opening all the corporation’s schedules up to competition and, in return, creating BBC Studios.

Director of television Danny Cohen was the focus of that year’s Edinburgh as he laid out which shows would not be up for grabs - such as Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders - indicating to producers those on offer.

Clements says: “I remember even PACT members going, “Well, I wouldn’t have done that because you own…Casualty or whatever. Why would you put that up for tender? I don’t think even PACT were particularly pushing for that.”

Ex-festival CEO, now BAFTA programme director, Campbell points out that Michaela Coel’s historic 2018 MacTaggart lecture “was a watershed moment in British TV”. Praising its “raw, deeply personal approach, disclosing for the first time that she had been sexually assaulted during a production”, Campbell thinks Coel’s “bold exposure of on-set racial inequalities and exploitative business models that strip young, diverse creators of their IP, acted as an immediate catalyst, triggering structural reforms across major UK broadcasters. Intimacy coordinators became mandatory alongside independent reporting lines for bullying and new duty of care proposals around trauma.”

It also “upturned traditional power structures, prompting broadcasters to abandon total copyright acquisition models - a shift that allowed Coel to retain 100% of the rights to her groundbreaking series I May Destroy You.”

Takeaways: think about what topics are vital for your business as the festival can be a useful lobbying occasion; tap into the trends that emerge from the sessions; fundamental systemic change can be sparked at Edinburgh

Learnings from the best and worst MacTaggarts

The fascination with the Murdoch family and its impact on the industry has loomed large at Edinburgh.

In 1989 Rupert Murdoch lambasted the BBC licence fee and twenty years later his son James’s MacTaggart echoed that as the then News Corporation Europe and Asia chief said, “the BBC is incapable of distinguishing between what is good for it and what is good for the country...The scope of its activities and ambitions is chilling”.

He added that “the only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit”. A line that in 2012, his sister Shine chief Elisabeth Murdoch countered in her MacTaggart with the line: “Profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster”.

Willis says the Murdochs’ MacTaggarts were significant because, “they were such major players in Britain. To hear them publicly outline their views and perspectives, because otherwise we were all guessing…was pretty significant.”

Clements remembers thinking during James’s: “Something has changed here because before that at the festival, there was always criticism of the BBC…but it was like, ‘You should do more arts programmes or make more programmes outside of London. But it was done in the spirit of friendly support.

“That was the first time I remember there being an absolute out-and-out assault and because it was done so calmly, but with such suppressed anger about Sky being stopped from monetising its news websites because of the BBC’s creep onto the internet, it was extraordinary and was so out of kilter of [the usual] Edinburgh.”

“It was never as bitter, angry or as pointed as that…and you’ve seen that in the TV business since then that it’s become much more commercial.”

David Abraham (then Channel 4 chief executive) is lauded by some indies for presciently saying in his lecture: “[The UK’s independent production sector is] being snapped up almost wholesale by global media companies at a faster rate than tickets for the public execution of Jeremy Clarkson”.

But for Campbell two MacTaggarts stand out in particular, Coel’s (mentioned above) and Dorothy Byrne’s in 2019, “whose speech not only marked the first time a prop was used in a MacTaggart lecture as the former C4 exec held aloft a large - and if you were close enough, stinking herring – whilst simultaneously calling out politicians for their lies.

“Byrne also blazed a trail by talking about the last great taboo – the menopause – which saw the introduction of a menopause policy at Channel 4, subsequently adopted more widely.”

Many think Vice CEO’s Shane Smith’s 2016 MacTaggart was something of a nadir. McVay recalls he, “just rambled in front of a whole lot of people who really didn’t want to be there” and represented, “all the sort of naysayers or future-gazers that came along and say, ‘Oh, you’re all dinosaurs’ - that’s all happening now with YouTube and with content creators and influencers. It’s all about that now. And I go, ‘Well, is it?’. Unless they’re mega, mega-successful, most of them aren’t making any frigging money!”

Takeaways: MacTaggarts can create new strategies as well as headlines; look beyond the headlines for emerging themes

Funniest moments

“You know what they say, what happens in Edinburgh, stays in Edinburgh”, jokes Campbell whose most enjoyable memories include “Edinburgh does…LipSync Battle’, with singer Mel B judging some quite questionable lycra-clad performances” and “Edinburgh does…Big Brother, where we locked eight execs in the Big Brother house for 24 hours” and mimicked the show’s regular brutal tasks by subjecting them to a quiz in which “we administered an electric shock for every wrong answer. Watching TV bosses clad in forgiving lycra jumpsuits jolting painfully in the air proved a strange delight for all of us!”

Humorous anecdotes from long-term attendees range from Channel 4’s PR team trying to ensure their chief exec Mark Thompson’s appearance sporting a new beard to deliver his 2002 MacTaggart didn’t overshadow his actual speech, to Sir John Birt surprising onlookers by hitting the dance floor at the C4 x Soho House pop-up in 2005.

A highlight is always when execs and producers take part in versions of TV formats such as The Apprentice and talent shows.

“I had to wait nearly twenty years for my big moment” at Edinburgh says Graham, which was not a MacTaggart but an appearance in the festival’s “live re-boot of Stars In Their Eyes, hosted by Vernon Kay. (‘Tonight, Vernon, I am going to be Joe Cocker’) Singing With A Little Help From My Friends. Never in my life have I been so terrified. But I’m pleased to say, with the help of Granada TV’s brilliant Ray Monk I saw off a strong field, including Newsnight editor Peter Barron’s Elvis Costello and Sky One controller Richard Woolfe’s Freddie Mercury. The Guardian was kinder to me than Richard, who, they said, ‘dressed up as Freddie Mercury but looked more like Catherine Tate’.”

He also recalls “The George bar was always an intimidating place for an ambitious young producer” but his career “nearly ended before it started when my two-year-old daughter, who had come along with her mum, reached out and stuck a chubby hand into John Birt’s gin and tonic, pulling out the slice of lemon and sticking it in her mouth. It was to be her last visit to the Festival.”

Among Clements’ fondest memories are an executive of German network ProSieben observing to Nicola Sturgeon, “Do you know you look a bit like Nicola Sturgeon?” and So TV chief Graham Stuart bonding with Jerry Springer at the end of a long night singing Scottish folk song Bonnie Dundee.

A favourite recollection of Thoday’s is when he was asked to be on an Edinburgh panel about talent after the corporation said it would not do business with Avalon for five years following client Frank Skinner’s move from the BBC to ITV.

“I was talking to the [BBC controller of talent] Rob Warr in The George bar the night before. I said, ‘We’re on different sides of a panel tomorrow and we’re talking about talent’. He said, ‘Oh yes, I hope it’s not going to be contentious’. I said, ‘Well, it is going to be contentious.’”

The following day Thoday arrived, “for the panel, excited about the fact we could debate this in public and Rob had gone to the organisers and he wasn’t prepared to be on the other side to me!”

In the days when most execs stayed at The George Hotel, an incident that stands out in Willis’ mind was “a fire alarm at about 3am and the glitterati of British television in their pyjamas on the pavement outside. And there were quite a lot of people looking around saying, ‘Oh, what are they doing standing on the pavement together?’”

Takeaways: the most memorable moments are often unexpected; it’s business but enjoy it too

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Everyone knows the traditional television commissioning process is undergoing a sea-change.

With broadcasters restructuring and financial belts tightening, indies are filling funding gaps by actively seeking finance from brands.

But it’s not as easy as cold pitching marketing directors on LinkedIn.

To make advertiser-funded programming (AFP) work for you, you need to understand the mechanics of it, what not to do and how brands’ media agencies measure the return on investment (ROI).

This week, senior associate director of branded entertainment at WPP Media Simon Kennedy - who worked in TV previously on shows such as National Geographic’s When Sharks Attack - breaks down the reality of brand-funded TV.

Collaborations his department - which also covers sport - has worked on include Dragonfly North’s Cancer Detectives for Channel 4, which received funding from Cancer Research UK and led to the charity recording their highest day of regular giving.

So read on for Kennedy’s insider’s view on how media agencies evaluate projects and how you can make your pitch to brands count.

His insights include:

• Routes to securing brand funding

• The economics and ROI evaluation

• Opportunities in social branded entertainment

• How to pitch effectively to media agencies

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Routes to brand funding

Everyone wants to find ways of filling funding gaps.

WPP Media’s senior associate director of branded entertainment Simon Kennedy says many people start by “looking on LinkedIn and sending messages to marketing directors of brands, hoping that they’re going to get some traction.”

Or they approach consultants, who are often ex-agency staff, former marketeers or producers who have done brand-funded shows at an indie and now set up on their own.

Kennedy says he’s “agnostic as to how an idea is brought to me. I personally am fine with where the work comes from. I speak to both the consultants and the production companies directly. And the broadcasters and the talent agents - whoever wants to bring me something. I’m not fussy.”

But it’s rare to have someone like him at an agency that indies can approach.

He explains: “We are the largest media agency in the UK, so I’ve got hundreds of brands under our umbrella [but] most other media agencies don’t have this dedicated resource.

“So whilst I want to say, ‘Speak to me’, I think it is sort of a lie to say that speaking to media agencies in general is a way to get your work made. You may get some traction. There will be people that have done them before. But as far as dedicated resource goes, that’s more rare.”

His experience of having been a TV producer also helps as “it means that I can be a way to connect a good idea to the money that could fund it.”

For indies trying to access this capital, timing and transparency are paramount. Bringing an idea to a brand that isn’t fully formed before securing genuine broadcaster interest can burn valuable bridges.

“You really only want to take it to a brand once the commissioner has said, ‘If you’ve got the money I’ll commission this.’ Coming with a spurious, ‘Well, they sort of smiled when I showed it to them and when that’s happened previously, that’s meant they’ve sort of liked it’ gets us into trouble,” says Kennedy.

He warns against exaggerating interest from one party to the other in the hope it makes one of them commit. Kennedy also stresses that for indies the commissioner relationship “is the most valuable thing, because I am tagging on brand money to a process that you’ve already undertaken to get the channel to be interested.”

Plus, “if it’s not going to go on the channel, then nobody’s going to see it. Therefore, it’s of no value to the brand.”

Takeaways: don’t just cold pitch marketing directors; look strategically at who brands have representing them and what their track record is; secure real commissioner commitment before pitching brands; don’t over-hype commissioner interest to a media agency or brand partner and vice versa

The economics and ROI evaluation

The avenues available to indies searching for funding may have expanded, but to access that money you need to understand how brands manage their budgets.

Kennedy points out that at the beginning of the financial year a brand has “already planned how it’s going to spend every penny that it’s got. It’s going to spend this much on making a new ad, this much on television advertising, billboards, radio etc - it’s all set in stone. A very small minority of brands hold money for branded entertainment.”

Around 99% of most brands’ annual marketing budget is already pre-allocated, therefore any pitch must be good enough to persuade them to divert funds away from their existing media strategy.

Media agencies evaluate branded content opportunities by comparing the cost of funding a show against the rate-card cost of equivalent traditional advertising, along with other metrics to determine whether an AFP proposal is going to give a worthwhile return on investment.

Kennedy gives the example of an indie wanting £1m of funding for a six-episode 9pm ITV show. To work out if it’s of value to the brand, he takes into account the sponsorship bumpers the broadcaster gives (usually 80 seconds over an hour) then, “I would look at your format and see roughly how much is my brand actually going to show up within the content and I put an estimate of, basically, the product placement value of the opportunity.”

He will then “tot up a few other things like the PR value of being able to say you’re launching a new show, the value associated with any additional assets that might be generated, the value associated with being adjacent to a famous person…all of these things.”

Also taken into account are things like the rate-card for if he had to buy that much airtime at 9pm on a weekday at ITV etc. If the resulting value exchange “is more than the £1m that you’re asking me for to make your TV show”, say around £1.4m, “then it’s genuinely a good investment.”

Of course there are additional ways of evaluating the campaign’s success, such as using research to test if a brand allying itself with a particular show has improved viewers’ perception of it.

But it’s worth remembering other competing media routes for brands such as influencer marketing - which is usually cheaper than the amount of finance an AFP will ask for - are easier to evaluate as the value exchange can be measured more easily than a linear ad-funded TV show. “There is slot average and that is useful. But you don’t know if a show is going to do well or not. There is an inherent risk.”

Takeaways: brand budgets are pre-allocated early in the financial year; structure pitches so promotional and media value exceeds the requested funding commitment; stress the ROI you can deliver

Opportunities in social branded entertainment

Although there are some big linear deals happening, innovation in branded funding is occurring mostly in fast-turnaround digital formats.

Kennedy uses the example of Channel 4’s digital YouTube commissions, which offer advertisers social branded entertainment opportunities.

“They have digital YouTube commissioners that commission shows just for Channel 4’s YouTube channels. Those are what are sold to brands and then they also buy some paid media to help support a guaranteed viewership across those products.”

An advantage is speed (“they can turn it around in 12 weeks; it’s a quicker process”) plus “it’s a lower entry point of cost and…it does match the growing viewing habits of YouTube being on the main screen of the home.”

A key thing Kennedy says to ask is, when people say branded content should be put on YouTube, you should think: “Yes, but whose YouTube? It’s got channels, but it hasn’t got ITV. It’s not like television. It’s different. If the brand puts it on their own, will a viewer think less because it feels like an ad? If a creator puts it on their own, but the brand pays for it, does the brand really get the benefit of that audience or actually is it to the benefit of the creator?”.

He cites Channel 4, Cancer Research UK and Dragonfly's Cancer Detectives andElectric Robin’s The Great British Phone Switch for Tesco Mobile and Channel 4 (in which parents and their children swapped digital lives for 48 hours to understand each other’s phone use better) as examples of projects executed well.

Takeaways: explore digital-first social branded formats for faster turnaround times and lower budget barriers; whose YouTube account will the content be on?

Working with media agencies

As well as approaching conversations with an agency with complete transparency about commissioner interest, indies should be honest around editorial flexibility.

Kennedy advises producers to identify early on what elements of a show might be changed to accommodate the brand’s ambitions, without compromising the creative vision for the show.

“You need to be honest about how flexible you can be with certain bits of the format. On a travelogue with two celebs, is the commissioner attached to the celebs or the destination? If you say, ’It’s a travelogue across Australia’, but my travel brand doesn’t sell holidays to Australia, can it change? The term I use is the ‘editorial cost.’”

He explains: “I will work with the production company to find things that are of low editorial cost to the show and repackage them as highly valuable opportunities for the brand to be in the content.”

Takeaways: gauge the flexibility of your format to accommodate a brand’s needs; be transparent about what the ‘editorial cost’ might be

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When Zinc Media Group-owned indie Red Sauce received a bumper order of the Channel 5 reality series Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun a few years ago, it ended up with release forms for 12,000 people.

To manage the heavy administrative load, the company’s in-house technology arm built a “release form engine” that would capture the contributor’s photographs and information and reference them against the finished cuts to work out whether they had appeared in an episode.

Zinc - the production group that houses Putin vs. The West indie Brook Lapping and Rob & Rylan’s Grand Tour producer Rex - was ahead of its time back then. Ultimately, the development costs were too prohibitive for the compliance engine to become a viable solution.

But fast-forward to 2026, and “now, suddenly, we’re in this world where the barriers have been removed,” says Olly Strous, chief technology officer at Zinc. “We had this great idea. We know it’s got value to us, and no doubt, it will have value to others. The time is right.”

Strous, who joined Zinc in 2021, is leading Cicada, a new in-house AI label he describes as a “playground with a purpose.” The division is building tools for both internal and external use. The newly AI-turbocharged compliance platform, for example, analyses video for contributors, checks whether they should be blurred and logs the music that’s used. It then generates music cue sheets and completes post-production paperwork.

At the moment, this innovation is only being used internally, says Strous. But “as we develop it further, it certainly has scope to be a product that we bring to market.”

Zinc is among a wave of producers who are embedding - and legitimising - AI within their operations, rather than quietly letting it run in the background.

Strous accepts there is a stigma around certain areas of AI use, namely generative AI. “We feel the same about the bits of AI that will take people’s creative jobs,” he says. “We all joined this creative industry to be creative… But there’s a whole bunch of things that no one really wants to be doing anyway.”

Why set up a dedicated AI label at all? “We want to be able to share what we’re doing,” explains Strous. “If we give it an identity, then we can shout about it, and people know what it is, rather than it being the Zinc Media technology division.”

In this week’s Indie Hustle, Strous breaks down the ways the production company is approaching AI, and the ways it’s being deployed.

Read on to learn:

• Why indies are better served finding AI solutions to specific problems than dwelling on the latest tools and platforms

• How vibe coding can help producers work smarter and save money and time

• The four types of AI use at Zinc Media Group

• Why making money in AI is still more about boosting productivity through cost efficiencies than AI-generated work

Forget the tools. What’s your problem?

Many in the industry are focused on keeping up with the latest AI tools and platforms in order to stay current and relevant. But a better approach for producers may be to think about the specific challenges they’re confronting in their day to day — and what AI can potentially fix.

“You’ve got some companies that are chasing every tool out there and desperately trying to stay on top of it and be seen as remarkable leaders because they’re across every single tool the minute it comes out,” says Strous. “Then you’ve got the other side that sees AI as this huge threat and want to avoid it at all costs.”

Cicada is trying to take a balanced approach “where we’re looking at capability rather than tools, and [asking] what is the problem that we’re trying to fix? How can we use these tools to fix a problem?”

Cicada recently carried out an internal audit of sorts, asking Zinc’s entire workforce to detail problems they often encounter in their roles, and ideas for solutions. Strous and his team are going through the best ideas and seeing whether AI could help to solve them.

Strous doesn’t fixate on what tool is used. “I don’t care whether it’s Claude or ChatGPT or generative AI,” he says. “I’ve heard quite a few people going, ‘Which tools should I use?’ and they are getting bogged down in the wrong question. The question is, ‘What do you want to do?’”

Zinc is using AI to do everything from mundane tasks like automatically coding invoices and extracting the general ledger codes for each of them, to testing development ideas against an AI model of a PSB commissioner, to generating drama reconstructions for documentaries that would have been too expensive to fund with real actors.

“If you can go through business and gain a number of incremental efficiencies, and then gain some really big efficiencies or find new, big revenue streams from the things that we’re doing, then that’s the sort of holy grail of AI,” says Strous.

Takeaways: don’t fixate on the AI platforms and tools; figure out what problem you’d like to solve and look into the ways you can do so using AI; be AI platform-agnostic

Why every producer needs to understand vibe coding

The deployment of AI at Zinc breaks down into four areas: chat, generative, agents and vibe coding. “We’ve managed to use all four of those disciplines across everything that we’re exploring,” says Strous.

Chat involves basic search and critical thinking questions, while agents perform certain tasks, such as the aforementioned invoice coding. Generative is used selectively (depending on the clients and what they are comfortable with) and largely for drama reconstructions in non-fiction production.

Vibe coding, however, has allowed Cicada to innovate with breakthroughs such as its compliance platform. Simply put, if you have an idea for an app, vibe coding enables just about anyone to develop it without needing to understand code or work with a developer (although Strous recommends doing the latter to fine-tune the product).

You describe your idea using detailed prompts, and an AI agent creates it. Other companies that use the practice include Deep Fusion Films, whose CEO Ben Field detailed its use to Indie Hustle earlier this year.

“Historically, you would have gone and spoken to a developer [about your idea for an app], and they would have told you phase one will cost X amount and take Y number of weeks, and you go, ‘I’m not going to see the ROI because that was a cool idea, but it’s never going to come to light. It’s too expensive,’” says Strous.

But with vibe coding, “You take the same idea you would have given to the developer, you put it into a vibe coding app, and it goes and builds it really quickly and pretty efficiently,” adds the exec. “You can get a working app in a number of hours.”

Zinc primarily uses Anthropic’s Claude Code, which costs around £15 per month for a “pro” subscription, and £75 per month for a “max” subscription.

Takeaways: vibe coding allows users to create apps in hours by bypassing code generation and simply inputting English-language prompts into Claude Code; it has allowed the creation of a compliance platform for Zinc

Generating AI-related revenue

Zinc made around £3 million in 2025 from AI-related content. However, Strous underlines that “we would not have made that money if the AI market didn’t exist,” he says.

“It’s not necessarily that someone’s procured a fully generated advert from us that’s exclusively made with AI,” he says.

Instead, Zinc produced an AI trade show event for Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G42, as well as a commercial starring Lewis Hamilton that incorporated some AI.

“The adverts we created for G42 had AI holograms and AI-generated imagery in the background of Lewis Hamilton,” explains Strous. “Once again, the AI industry opened that door to us to create something that is AI.”

The next step for Zinc, however, is to generate £3 million from “actual AI work.”

“That’s the bit we’re trying to navigate,” says Strous. “The bit that everybody’s trying to navigate at the moment is actually generating [money]. We’re more likely to generate £3 million worth of savings through efficiencies with our business than we are to see £3 million worth of generative AI content.”

Takeaways: Zinc made £3 million in AI-related revenue last year, though it was more about cost efficiencies; the company wants to make the same amount from AI-generated content

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Premium history drama-documentaries are a competitive genre, particularly ones presented by celebrities.

Just putting a famous face or expert in spectacular locations is no longer enough for viewers who have become increasingly sophisticated.

But how do you find new ways to tell centuries-old stories that will appeal to streamers’ worldwide audiences?

That was one of the challenges for the ambitious new National Geographic and Disney+ three-part series Pompeii: Out of Time, presented by Loki actor and amateur classicist Tom Hiddleston, who has been fascinated by what happened in the aftermath of the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD ever since he visited the site as a teenager.

By innovating and blurring the boundaries between drama and documentary, showrunner and director Tom Barbor-Might and producers Plimsoll Productions, which makes prestige shows such as Netflix’s Skyscraper Live, aimed to create a piece of event television that Barbor-Might describes as an “elevated docu-drama”.

“We realised we could tell the story of Pompeii from street level,” he explains. “We could actually follow real people. That felt genuinely new and highly personal.”

“It’s a “big swing” for Nat Geo”, says Plimsoll founder and chief executive Grant Mansfield (whose company’s biggest customers are streamers) and which he says offers useful lessons for others in unscripted.

Read on to discover insights about:

• Reinventing the traditional drama-documentary

• How expertise can matter more than celebrity

• Building history shows that make an impact globally

• Finance, distribution and AI in docu-dramas

  

Moving beyond the traditional drama-documentary

Drama-docs can sometimes sit awkwardly between the two genres, as Pompeii: Out of Time director Tom Barbor-Might explains, so he and the production team wanted to innovate.

“The drama often feels like it’s there simply to illustrate the documentary. What I really wanted was that when we did drama, we really did drama.”

That meant the actors’ scenes needed to stand on their own two feet, ensuring audiences could empathise with the characters.

Pompeii: Out of Time is described by Disney as “a fusion of cinematic scripted drama and investigative documentary storytelling that transports audiences to ancient Rome in the hours before and during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.”

To create this new kind of show a top team was assembled including acclaimed theatre playwright Mark Ravenhill and Geek Girl writer Jessica Ruston. Additional writing also came from Loki executive producer and the series co-executive producer and former Marvel Studios executive (and ex-Marine Corps combat correspondent) Kevin R. Wright and Barbor-Might.

Plimsoll Productions founder and chief executive Grant Mansfield also contributed to the writers’ room in the early stages and explains. “We had proper collaboration between scripted and unscripted producers. I think what often happens with drama docs is that you get unscripted producers trying to make dramas on their own and that doesn’t tend to go so well.”

Rather than just reconstructing the events, the writers followed the lives of three Romans in the final hours before the eruption, based on stories that have emerged through years of excavation of the area around Mount Vesuvius and beyond.

The production’s starting point was the archaeological research. But Barbor-Might was also interested in interweaving the drama with Hiddleston’s conversations with experts such as geoscientists and historians.

He also wanted to include the actor’s own personal recollections of visiting the area when he was 17 and the effect it had on him.

Therefore the production deliberately blurred the boundaries between doc and drama by introducing (like BBC drama Small Prophets) elements of magic realism.

In Pompeii: Out of Time’s case this included time-travelling. It uses a similar plot device to the one used in Loki, with Hiddleston rewinding and forward-winding the action through time with a rotation of his hand as evidence emerges from the experts as to what happened to the real-life protagonists.

Action from the drama also sometimes has an effect in the documentary elements eg. the effect of shocks from Vesuvius’ eruption are shown in scenes involving Hiddleston in the present day.

Barbor-Might says he was keen to “make the division between the two timelines porous, but also the division between the two forms of filmmaking.”

However he adds that, “the responsibility is to be honest with the audience,” so any blurring between what is based on evidence and what on imagination (drawn from logical conclusions when there are gaps in the archaeological record) is signposted clearly so viewers know.

The result, according to Tom McDonald, EVP of content at National Geographic, has been a “process of inventing an entirely new genre of history programming - one which brings evidence and imagination together in a way which feels distinctive.”

Takeaways: treat drama as storytelling in its own right, not simply as illustration; innovation and magic realism can help you stand out in a crowded docu-drama market

Expertise and celebrity

Having a globally-recognised star front your show undoubtedly helps get a commission, particularly from a streamer.

Hiddleston knew Plimsoll from a previous show he had worked on with them and his enthusiasm was a catalyst for the programme; he was in the original pitch.

His expertise in the area - he has a double first in classics from Cambridge - also made a difference.

“It really did start with Tom,” explains Barbor-Might. “The classical world is a genuine passion of his. If you ever spend time with Tom he will start telling you about classical history. This is what he lives and breathes.”

Plus, Mansfield says, “He’d mentioned [to Plimsoll USA chief Alan Eyres] he was interested in unscripted TV… there’s a genuine interest there.”

Rather than acting just as a narrator delivering facts to camera, Hiddleston experiences the discoveries alongside the audience; even some things he gets wrong are left in.

An A-list name may help secure attention, but viewers are often more invested in a show when the presenter genuinely cares about the subject.

Barbor-Might explains: “We wanted Tom to be emotionally invested. He isn’t there simply to deliver information. He goes on the journey with the audience.”

Mansfield adds: “He doesn’t really play a character. He plays himself. He has real emotional intelligence and is capable of tapping into the emotion of these stories because the interest is authentic.”

The actor also became far more involved than many celebrity presenters, participating in writers’ discussions, working closely with production and keen to participate in the publicity campaign.

“He has been far more than a host,” points out Mansfield. “It’s been a real pleasure working with him and I know he wants to do other stuff in the unscripted space.”

Takeaways: genuine expertise rather than just celebrity appeal can elevate a show; build projects around people’s personal passions; involve talent creatively throughout development if you can

Making an impact globally

The streaming era has transformed the economics and ambition of high-end factual commissioning.

“If a streamer creates a hit now it becomes a hit all over the world,” observes Mansfield, as he found with Netflix production Skyscraper Live, where, “what surprised me was seeing it creating news in Taiwan, Russia and America at the same time.”

That global reach influenced the development of Pompeii: Out of Time from the outset.

Ancient Rome already carries worldwide recognition, while Hiddleston’s international profile and National Geographic’s global brand provided further advantage.

Built around the show are additional elements that will help boost its profile across territories.

As well as Disney giving the programme a big marketing push, Natgeo.com has a major story on three Roman cities buried by Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, which will feature in the August issue of National Geographic magazine (which McDonald oversees) and which it says is based on the latest AI and advanced DNA analysis of ancient Roman life - including “previously unreadable lost writings from Herculaneum’s [which is near Pompeii] carbonised scrolls and diet and disease from a Pompeii latrine.”

In addition a soundtrack featuring a score by composer Aisling Brouwer is being released through Hollywood Records to accompany the series.

Multiple points of entry for audiences, beyond the television series itself, are being created by Disney/Nat Geo that will feed back into the show.

Mansfield praises McDonald for backing an ambitious creative approach and seeing the impact it could have worldwide.

“It was a big swing,” he says. “He saw the potential from the beginning, kept his hand on the tiller all the way through [and] was incredibly supportive.”

Takeaways: create as many touchpoints as you can to draw viewers in from outside the screen; evaluate which historical events have particular global appeal

Finance, distribution and AI

The producers were lucky to have a good budget, which was fully-financed by Disney/Nat Geo.

Notably, the team decided early on that every visual effect would be created by human artists, not generative AI.

“There was no AI,” Barbor-Might says. “Everything was created by visual-effects artists.”

Mansfield goes on: “We took an early decision that we didn’t want to use AI. We were fortunate to have the budget to achieve what we wanted properly.”

But the production kept an eye on budget and saved money by using the Gladiator 2 set in Malta for some of the drama scenes.

Mansfield explains: “We were able to save money because we just jumped into that set so thanks to Ridley Scott!”

With more high-quality content competing than ever before, even excellent programmes risk disappearing without the budget for good marketing support.

Mansfield says the show is lucky to have “fantastic distribution platform in Disney+” but also advises that distribution alone is no longer enough.

“The challenge isn’t just making good television,” he says. “The challenge is making sure people find it.”

Takeaways: budget can dictate ethical decisions around AI; use existing sets to save money; even good shows can get lost if you just rely on distribution

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It feels sometimes as though every permutation of a dating reality show has been attempted on linear TV. Between the myriad offerings across public service broadcasters and streamers, audiences may, quite literally, have seen it all.

That’s why the next turn of the wheel within the genre isn’t targeting linear audiences at all: it’s going mobile-first.

Double Date Island, a partnership between dating app Tinder and social video platform TikTok, was announced at Cannes Lions last month, signalling “a defining moment for the entertainment and dating industries,” according to both companies.

The show, which is co-produced by ITV Studios’ Studio 55 and Cowshed Studios, stops short of being TikTok’s first original reality series (rather, it’s Tinder that’s presenting it on the platform), but TikTok confirmed to Indie Hustle that it’s the first partnership of its kind for the social video platform.

The show is based on a Tinder feature called Double Date, which allows a Tinder user and friend to match with other pairs and go on dates. The resulting series reflects how dating platforms are “moving beyond the app.” It also points to the innovation between brands and creative studios such as Studio 55.

Launched in February, Studio 55 is ITV Studios’ global brand and licensing partnerships studio. It was created to connect the ITVS content portfolio with brands, marketing agencies and creators for major licensing deals as well as digital-first formats built around fandoms. (Studio 55 will remain within ITVS after Sky’s £1.6 billion acquisition of ITV closes next year, subject to regulatory approval.)

The relationship with Tinder began with a podcast idea related to the BBC dating show I Kissed a Boy (produced by ITVS-owned Twofour) that became its own successful IP called It Started With a Kiss.

“It was them wanting to lean in to create a vodcast with us that engaged that high-intent audience and fandom, but was also very relevant to the LGBTQ+ community,” says Will Scougal, EVP of brand and commercial partnerships for ITVS.

From there, the companies built on their relationship with all roads eventually leading to Double Date Island. This week, Scougal sat down with The Indie Hustle to discuss the conception and objectives of the show; how brand licensing has evolved from water bottles on Love Island to a brand-partnered social-first dating series; and his evergreen advice for reaching audiences through brands.

Read on to learn:

• How brand licensing has evolved from slapping logos on water bottles to engaging more meaningfully with audiences

• How a straightforward soft drink license led to a cross-continental opportunity for Love Island

• Why Double Date Island needs so many stakeholders and why it’s TikTok-first

• Why ‘fans are as valuable as the shows themselves’

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What do brands want?

Scougal joined ITVS in 2025 after stints as Snap’s global director of creative strategy and Twitter U.K.’s head of brand strategy. He was consulting for the superindie when the idea for Studio 55 emerged as a way to explore conversations with partners and creators, leverage ITVS IP and go out to brands. Scougal helped to launch Studio 55 in February during London TV Screenings.

“One of the things that all brands want over and above the revenue exchange with their customers is attention,” says Scougal. “Every brand needs the attention of people, so they can tell people where they’re different, where they’re unique, what their values are and what their product attributes are.”

But as media has fragmented and consumer attention is split every which way, it’s grown increasingly difficult for brands to break through on social media feeds.

“When I came into ITV Studios, what was happening within the media landscape at the time was that brands’ need for attention was changing slightly from ‘we don’t just want a two-second impression’ and ‘we don’t just want someone to look at something’ to ‘we want it to really mean something,’” says Scougal.

A show like Love Island, which pulls in 9 billion views on ITVS-owned platforms and 49 billion views overall on social media, has a highly engaged fanbase.

“Where brand licensing used to be ‘we’re going to license a water bottle’ or ‘we’re going to license a watch party,’ what we now see is that actually those licenses are cultural on-ramps into the passion and attention of those audiences,” says Scougal.

Takeaways: brands don’t want a two-second impression, they want meaningful engagement with audiences; brand licenses are now thought of as “cultural on-ramps” into fandoms

The poppi x Love Island breakthrough

The Pepsi-owned gut-healthy soda poppi is a salient case study. The team noticed that in 2025, social media went ballistic over Love Island USA winner Amaya Espinal. The hashtag #AmayaPapaya received 400 million mentions.

Poppi created an Amaya Papaya can mock-up that reflected the conversation, says Scougal. And from there, an ongoing conversation about a soft drink license became a physical can that went on sale for fans.

“And because of that success, that led to a bigger relationship this year in North America and the U.K.,” explains Scougal.

Last month, Studio 55 struck a partnership between Love Island and poppi for both the U.S. and U.K. versions of the show. It includes in-show integrations, Stateside retail activity, experiences in the U.K. and other digital content initiatives around forthcoming series.

“Brand licenses are now cultural on-ramps into engaged fandoms, and the marketing teams within global brands are really paying attention to that as a way to insert their brands and their messaging into high-attention and high-intent audiences,” concludes Scougal.

Takeaways: The right tie-up that taps into a moment in culture can lead to ongoing opportunities; marketing teams at global brands are keenly looking for buzzy brand license deals

Landing on Double Date Island

Building on the success of the It Started With a Kiss podcast, the relationship with Tinder came from a place of “what is the objective the brand wants to achieve, what is it they’re trying to do, and how do we then use IP, entertainment, creators and all of the things that sit within ITV Studios to go and address and answer that,” explains Scougal.

That’s inherently a very different proposition from the way some producers are approaching brand-funded entertainment, which is “‘We have a show, this is what it’s called, we need some funding to get it commissioned,’” adds the exec. “That is not necessarily where we spend a huge amount of our time.”

Double Date Island originated from a Tinder pilot for double dates that the company was keen to build upon. “We had a discussion about how we could make this into a TikTok-first show, and in working with Tinder, we developed their IP and the creative a little bit, Cowshed became involved as our production partner, TikTok are partnering with Tinder and OMD are on board as the media agency,” says Scougal.

The show, which is currently filming in Portugal, finds pairs of best friends cast from around the world going on double dates, meeting other international pairings and, as per a release, “experiencing a sun-drenched getaway of spontaneous, pressure-free connections, all captured on camera.” It will only be available to users aged 18 and over on TikTok.

The show will roll out as part of a six-week publishing and distribution window beginning in August.

While it’s too early in the process for Scougal to share details on the production, he explains that “TikTok is a platform built on authenticity, and the type of content that works is broad, but also very specific, and the way that you publish is very different to other social platforms or different content distribution platforms.”

As such, the core show is tailored as TikTok-first, and digital specialists Cowshed Studios are handling the physical production.

Reflecting on the large number of parties involved, Scougal admits there is “often an intricate network of stakeholders that need to be partnered with or managed in some way” across these deals. In addition to Studio 55, ITV Studios’ Zoo 55 is also playing a part in developing the show’s distribution strategy across social media and video platforms following the TikTok launch.

Takeaways: Double Date Island is currently in production in Portugal and will follow a six-week publishing and distribution window in August; the show is tailored to be TikTok-first, with Cowshed handling physical production

‘Fans are as valuable as the shows themselves’

What producers and anyone wanting to work with brands must remember is that the fundamentals of marketing and partnering with brands haven’t changed, says Scougal.

“The objective is still, ‘I want to talk to these people in order to get them to do this. I want to connect with these people. I want the attention of these people because I want to communicate a value or something about the product or the brand,’” he explains.

“The way you get to people’s attention is you listen to them, their values and what they’re talking about. So, audiences are key,” adds Scougal.

The executive advises keeping a laser focus on the audience you want to target. They will give you “the biggest clues and signals about how to engage them as a group.”

“We’ve got a saying, which is ‘the fans are as valuable as the shows themselves,’ and we really believe that,” says Scougal. “If you think about every partnership as a marketing vehicle, and a way of making fans feel great, entertained and seen, then I think you start in a really good place.”

Takeaways: fundamentals of marketing and working with brands haven’t changed; keep an eye on the audience for clues and signals on how to engage with them as a group

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Indies may be getting digital commissions away with broadcasters, but what happens to that content once it launches on platforms such as YouTube? At the moment, broadcasters tend to manage their own channels. But Peter Cowley, co-founder of Spirit Studios, argues that it’s time for producers to level up and learn how to act as publishers themselves.

“Anyone engaging in content on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok or even their own website, needs the skills to be able to publish and do community management to grow those audiences,” says Cowley. “It is a completely different skillset to the ones which traditional producers have.”

There’s a growing knowledge gap in the market around digital channel management for platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Spotify Video and Apple Video, says Cowley. And honing these skills isn’t an Homeric feat.

Digital channel management is an umbrella term for activities ranging from the oversight of comments on videos or interactive chats (community management), to the testing of thumbnail images for maximum impact (audience optimisation). Companies can learn how to do this work for themselves or outsource to outfits such as Spirit Studios, who manage the channels for a stable of producers.

“Managing how people find you is sometimes 50% of the challenge in self-publishing on these platforms,” adds Cowley. “The content itself is 50% and discovery is 50%.”

In this week’s Indie Hustle, Cowley outlines various models for successful channel management and the YouTube channel features he swears by.

Read on to learn:

• Why having a plan after hitting ‘upload’ is essential

• All the elements that go into the art of channel management

• The perks of working with a multi-channel network (MCN) operator

• Two YouTube features every channel should experiment with

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The sports documentary market has enjoyed a boom over the past few years, with the likes of Prime’s All or Nothing and Netflix’s Drive to Survive becoming famous programme brands.

Driven by a post-pandemic hunger for high-stakes stories and global streaming platforms realising how the genre could improve their reach, sports docs are in demand.

But the market is changing. With a glut of shows trying to emulate the success of Netflix hit Beckham and streamers moving more into live sports rights, indies are facing new challenges but also new opportunities - particularly in micro-sports docs.

Alongside straightforward turnkey commissions from streamers/broadcasters, more complex financial and windowing deals are being done that have echoes of the pre-streamer era.

So if you’re a sports documentary specialist or want to get into the genre, what are the financing options? And how can you compete in a market that’s become dominated by athlete-controlled semi-branding exercises?

Pitch International has its ear to the sporting ground as it’s a 22 year-old global media rights agency that manages sponsorship deals, sports events and hospitality for clients including the FA, the English Football League and the English Cricket Board.

It also has a features and programme-making arm, Pitch Productions, which has numerous acclaimed titles to its name. They include the Netflix film Pele, All or Nothing: Brazil National Team, plus two Untold UK docs currently on Netflix (one on Vinnie Jones, the other on Liverpool FC’s 2005 Champions League final) and the film Cantona, which premiered to rave reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Pitch International’s chief operating officer Jonathan Rogers leads its production arm and was previously at ITV, so understands both sides’ point of view and where the market is heading.

For The Indie Hustle he breaks down the reality of the shifting sports landscape, so read on to find out:

• How to negotiate the new economics of sports docs

• Moving beyond the sanitised access series

• The new funding jigsaw

•The changing global market

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At this month’s Seriencamp TV conference in Cologne, Germany, media consultancy Bolytics revealed that of the $18 billion market for microdramas, $14 billion sits within China, while $4 billion is spread across the rest of the world.

The data reflects the outsize influence China currently has in the microdrama space, but it also hints at the vast runway for growth in other markets. Companies such as Germany’s Red Pony are keen to demonstrate that the future of the medium is “regionally-driven”: China leans into AI and scale; the U.S. is all about platforms and creators; India is mobile-first; and European countries and Japan focus on premium storytelling.

Red Pony, a new digital label set up earlier this year by the Bavaria Film and MDR Media-owned Saxonia Media, is trying to crack what a successful European microdrama format looks like.

At Seriencamp, head of Red Pony, Gregor Sauter and strategy, content & tech lead Beliban zu Stolberg unveiled two titles, Ghostwriter and Between the Beats, which is the first vertical drama from a German public broadcaster. Each employs different production methods, but they convey the potential in the market, along with a new ‘social cinema’ model that swaps some microdramas’ misogynistic storylines for more equitable narratives.

Commissioned by public broadcasters Radio Bremen and Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR), Between the Beats is more vertical drama than microdrama; meaning it feels like a scripted series that has been split into a 26 x 2-minute vertical format. Ghostwriter, meanwhile, was developed by testing potential storylines and hooks and was data-driven from the beginning, making it more of a traditional microdrama.

“There’s a lot we can learn from the fact that this is such a huge market and that there is a demand for that,” says Zu Stolberg. “We want to do it in a premium way and to have higher-quality storytelling and production values. But I don’t think we’re looking down on microdramas. Maybe the dramaturgy of the stories are a bit simpler than the high-quality serial content from Europe [we’re used to], but the creativity is still there.”

This week, The Indie Hustle catches up with Zu Stolberg and Sauter to detail their model of elevated storytelling and the secret ingredients every microdrama needs to have.

Read on to find out:

• Why microdrama producers need to think about distribution and audience testing from the very beginning

• How K-pop vertical drama Between the Beats could open the doors for broadcasters experimenting in the space

• Why microdrama storylines need to align with the culture and values of the local market

• How “social cinema” turns microdrama’s stereotypes and tropes on their head

• How a hybrid AI model can help to elevate a microdrama’s story hooks

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Think of distribution first

Saxonia Media, best known for long-running teen soaps and medical dramas in Germany, set up its Red Pony label in February as an incubator for new ways of storytelling, alongside strategic IP-building and creator-driven entertainment.

The label’s microdrama drive is not all that different from Saxonia’s core soaps and telenovelas, which also employ episodic hooks. But microdramas hold particular interest, says Sauter, because “you can get in contact with the audience, test the content at a really early stage and build your storytelling strategy on top of it.”

Both Sauter and Zu Stolberg underline the importance of thinking carefully about how a format is going to be distributed from the get-go, in the development process. Will it be on TikTok? Instagram? A bespoke microdrama app? And how can you connect with your target audience as early as possible?

“You have to think about distribution early on - straight from the beginning - which is a reversal of the more traditional stages in filmmaking that you usually have, where at the end you have a product and you’re not even sure if people like it, and then you test it with audiences, even though it’s already done,” says Zu Stolberg.

What microdramas are revolutionising, she adds, is that distribution is considered from the beginning and ideas are tested early “to get some signals from the market on how things might perform.”

Takeaways: think about distribution early on and test your concept in the market

A tale of two vertical dramas

In the case of Between the Beats, public broadcasters Radio Bremen and SR approached Red Pony with “a specific idea of how they want to reach new audiences on TikTok,” explains Sauter.

The idea for the show - a slick, music-infused Romeo and Juliet-style love story set in the worlds of ballet and K-pop - was to develop an “IP-building concept.” The company hired a Korean showrunner and writer to build out the story, with the longer-term goal of “building a brand for K-pop.”

Between the Beats is “made in the dynamic of a vertical drama in that it has cliff mechanics to hook people,” says Sauter, “but compared to a microdrama, it’s slightly slower [because of] dance scenes and there’s a bit more time for the characters.”

All eyes are on Between the Beats, which launches on TikTok on June 25, as it’s the first attempt at a vertical drama by a public broadcaster in Germany. If it breaks through it could forge a way forward for more broadcasters trying to reach younger audiences using vertical scripted series.

But Sauter advises that there are “different legal implications” for what a public broadcaster can commission compared with a commercial broadcaster. “What is the goal of the broadcaster? Is it targeting new audiences, or is it taking existing IP and extending it with a spin-off? There are dozens of possibilities, and it always starts with the strategy and the distribution infrastructure.”

Takeaways: Between the Beats could help more broadcasters step into vertical storytelling; different legalities for a PSB versus a commercial broadcaster

Introducing ‘social cinema’

In contrast, the development of Ghostwriter - which follows a young writer at a private school who surreptitiously pens essays for rich students to keep her comatose mother in hospital - followed a more traditional microdrama track.

Red Pony tested five or six different storylines using a new German microdrama app called Badaboom, which is backed by AI microdrama studio Deep Sauce Labs.

“We got data from them, and we tested specific arenas,” explains Sauter. “It was really data-driven.”

But Ghostwriter also “tried to elevate the microdrama,” explains Zu Stolberg. “There were certain beats that we tried to transcend in terms of genre.”

Microdramas use specific beats to hook viewers, and keep them paying for the subsequent chapters of a story. Just as CEO-based and illicit affair stories are common within the medium, shows also tend to feature some kind of a slap, for example, as a way of adding instant drama.

“We realised there are certain beats you have to hit, but then we ran into this problem of wanting to keep certain values and perspectives, such as having the female protagonist have her own agency and not being put down and humiliated by men, which is a common trope in the microdrama genre,” says Zu Stolberg.

“We thought, ‘How can we keep these beats that people expect and which drive the narrative, but reverse them, or tilt them a bit in a different narrative direction?’”

The team has labelled their method of turning microdrama-specific stereotypes and tropes on their head “social cinema.”

“It’s taking those learnings from microdrama and applying them in a way that we can stand behind,” explains Sauter.

When testing the Ghostwriter storylines, the traditional story arcs “had slightly better numbers,” adds the exec, but because they didn’t align with the producer’s values, “We took the second-best data from the second-highest ranking show in our data tests,” he says.

“This is what makes us a bit different from a 100% tech company from the U.S. or Holywater in Ukraine or a company from China,” says Sauter. “They only care about data. We try to find the thing in between that makes it social cinema.”

Takeaways: Ghostwriter was created with extensive testing; Red Pony actively decided not to use misogynistic storylines even though they tested well

Leaning into AI

On Ghostwriter, Red Pony also used a hybrid AI model. The tech was never used for writing, but where it did come in handy was in testing the effectiveness of the story’s hooks.

“We try to bring all the KPIs of the project together, so we figured out some different directions we could go in the beginning and did some simulations of, ‘If we go this way, then this will happen,’” says Sauter. “We saved a lot of time.”

The team also used AI for stunt work in one scene, and to add details to a specific close-up shot — a revelation that Sauter describes as “a great learning.”

Red Pony is no stranger to taking AI even further on productions. The outfit’s next film, Zimmermädchen (The Chambermaid), is a 100% AI-produced microdrama. Zu Stolberg describes the series as a “female underdog story.” While Ghostwriter only used AI where it made sense, Zu Stolberg acknowledges the enduring stigma around using the tech and advises producers “not to be scared of it.”

“There’s this kind of hesitation for a lot of production companies to even try it, but I think it really elevated the look,” she says.

Takeaways: AI was used to test story hooks and save time in development

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Global production powerhouse Banijay has long been lauded for its huge stable of TV formats.

Now it’s leveraging its powerhouse catalogue into the booming experiential live entertainment market.

First out of the block is a premium immersive experience based on the Netflix hit dystopian anthology Black Mirror, due to be followed by another of its big shows - more on that later.

Getting an IRL version of a fan favourite wrong by producing a low quality immersive show can result in a consumer backlash and taint a brand - even if the show was unlicensed. In 2024 two events not affiliated with the rights holders hit the headlines for the wrong reasons: Willy Wonka-based Willy’s Chocolate Experience and a Bridgerton-themed ball in Detroit.

But get it right and fandoms, keen to step inside the story of a show that they love, will turn up in droves.

Banijay’s fledgling division Banijay Live is behind The Black Mirror Experience and not only produces the experiences - rather than licensing them as All3Media did with the Traitors Live Experience and a Race Across the World Experience - it also owns companies that make blue chip events such as the opening ceremonies of the current men’s football World Cup.

With the post-covid boom in consumers wanting collective experiences and analogue connection away from social media, anyone creating screen IP now has to think of the live element.

But if you’re keen to bring some of your catalogue to life, what is the best selection strategy?

And how can you create not just a good event but a multi-territory business model that doesn’t compromise the on-screen brand’s integrity?

This week, Banijay Live’s CEO Francois de Brugada tells us how.

So read on to find out:

• How to identify which television IPs is right for real-life experiences

• Which of Banijay’s premium IP is due to be turned into a live experience next

• The strategy behind getting a creator’s blessing for an unwritten ‘episode’

• How to unlock partnerships

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In 2025, the word “parasocial” - used to define a close, one-sided relationship with a famous person you don’t know - was Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year.

Social media platforms are fuelled by parasocial bonds with celebrities, but these connections are also powering the podcasting boom. After all, there’s an intimacy in tuning into a favourite podcast, and spending time with a host literally in your ear, that is distinct to many other mediums.

At Indielab’s recent Content Futures event, executives from Goalhanger, the audio giant behind The Rest Is franchise, and Cold Glass Productions, makers of Waitrose’s Dish podcast, discussed how the unique relationships born out of podcasts can lead to community-building and, ultimately, live events.

Eight of Goalhanger’s 15 shows have membership clubs, with perks including ad-free listening, bonus episodes, members-only miniseries, early access to certain episodes and live show tickets, a members’ chat, newsletters and book deals. With 250,000 members across the eight clubs paying roughly £6 per month, that means these clubs generate a monthly revenue of £1.5 million, and £18 million a year.

Goalhanger’s senior memberships manager Hannah Rashbass says that as memberships have grown into a key revenue driver, they have organically led to more in-person experiences. “In an increasingly fragmented world where people feel lonelier and like they aren’t a part of things anymore, they want that experience in person,” she says.

Cold Glass CEO Ben Kerr and director of production Sam Cocker have also expanded Dish into live events, and last year staged a 90-minute “dinner party-style” live edition of the podcast at London’s Royal Opera House. The event sold out after just one promotional Instagram post, and made more than £100,000 in ticket sales.

Both Goalhanger and Cold Glass execs, however, stress that arriving at in-person experiences is only really possible with a strong foundational offering that is, ideally, brand-friendly. “If you can build a brand like The Rest Is History or Dish, in which an audience is willing to pay for your content, you’re much more valuable to an advertiser,” says Kerr.

Read on to find out:

• Why going niche with your podcast unlocks more opportunity

• Why brands are looking for ‘replicable behaviours’ in a show

• How membership is the future for media outfits

• Why the correct-sized venue for your live event is essential

• How to select and tailor an event space to suit your show

• When the right time is to ‘go live’

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It’s not just you: it’s hard to make money online. The traditional TV commissioning model may not be the meritocracy the industry needs it to be, but in many ways, it’s a hell of a lot easier than cracking YouTube.

As strategist and Business of TV author Jen Topping detailed at Indielab’s recent Content Futures event, emerging producers struggling to monetise on platforms such as YouTube aren’t missing a trick: among a host of other challenges, there is an enduring gulf between the advertisers and CPMs (cost per 1,000 impressions) on social platforms versus what is spent on linear channels. It’s “why you have to run so much harder online at the moment to make money relative to television,” according to Topping.

Yet speakers including Little Dot Studios’ MD of network social platforms Alex Hryniewicz, Jungle’s chief growth officer Jade Raad and Spirit Studios co-founder Peter Cowley stressed to the Content Futures audience that there are ways to work smarter in the digital content economy. Increasingly, it takes more than just creative excellence to get a show off the ground: producers need a hybrid strategy that considers the entire ecosystem, and meets the audience where it is.

In this week’s Indie Hustle, we look at some of the pillars of the new content ecosystem, and reveal the top five things everyone needs to know about working with YouTube and brands, going “direct to consumer” and diving into vertical video.

We hear from Little Dot Studios about the do’s and don’ts of sweating assets on YouTube; social and influencer agency Jungle about what brands really need from producer partners; and Spirit Studios about gamifying your content for vertical video. (We’ll have more next week from Goalhanger’s senior memberships manager Hannah Rashbass and Cold Glass co-founders Ben Kerr and Sam Cocker, producers of Waitrose’s Dish podcast, on how to build communities around your ideas and expand into live events.)

Read on to find out:

• Why long-form content pays off on YouTube in the long term

• The content black holes (including true crime) you need to avoid on YouTube

• Why a recurring audience matters more to brands than a hit show

• Why every production company needs to sort out its email strategy

• How to gamify your vertical content for maximum impact

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Channel 5 has been lauded for its stable of dramas which have pedigree credentials at a lower price point.

Following the success of Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, it now has another high-profile true crime drama, Under Suspicion: Kate McCann.

Cutting corners can result in bad TV, most obviously in drama. And when you’re dealing with sensitive subjects you need to go above and beyond to ensure editorial excellence; as ITV found in 2007 when it had to pull its below-par infamous Marchioness disaster drama.

However Under Suspicion, made by Orchard Studios, has successfully balanced budget constraints with compelling storytelling.

But how do you produce sensitive factual drama on a lower tariff, without compromising the on-screen outcome?

This week, Orchard Studios head of programmes Nat Lippiett tells us how.

So read on to find out:

• How budget limitations can lead to creative solutions

• Upskilling and training can actually save money

• How to navigate true crime drama’s legal, ethical and duty of care protocols

• Securing international distribution advances

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Budget limitations can be creative

Traditionally, drama-documentary hybrids run the risk of looking cheap if resources are stretched too thin across timelines and numerous locations.

The key is to decide what not to do.

Orchard Studios head of programmes Nat Lippiett argued that the solution is to go for a focused, contained narrative rather than trying to film an entire case.

“We didn’t want the budget to dictate the quality or the editorial integrity of the piece, but we knew we had a limited budget, so it does sharpen the mind.”

He explained the solution was to stick to the 48 hours during which the McCanns became suspects and the claustrophobic interrogation room it happened in.

The question the team asked itself was: “How do we make a very contained [show] and… hone the narrative so much that we don’t have to compromise on the quality of the actors, the quality of the talent behind the camera, the duty of care and the journalistic integrity of the piece?”

“The issue is that you can’t really do drama, particularly with dialogue, half-cocked,” Lippiett explained. “You’ve got to go all in, because otherwise it’s very easy to be quite bad.”

Anchoring the action mostly inside one, highly emotional environment, helped maintain production values.

Lippiett thinks this approach breathes new life into well-known cases: “You’re always looking for a reason to tell a particular story... [you] learn something new by doing it this way.”

“This lesser-known moment has been somewhat lost in speculation and narrative. So we revisited that material and felt there was a really important story to be told that not only told the context around some of the misunderstood moments of this case but brought out the humanity and emotion of it.”

The idea for Under Suspicion came out of a conversation Orchard had with 5 commissioning editor Dan Louw about “contained dramas and the idea of the interrogation room” with its twists and turns within “a claustrophobic space.” That drama is documented by police records, providing good source material.

But they did not think it should be a documentary as, “there’s more purpose to it if we’re able to treat it as a drama.”

“[So] we made a conscious decision to make something contained, small crew-type focus [with] an intimate approach…It was a deliberate, creative choice that we felt strengthened the premise.”

Takeaways: tight constraints sharpen creative problem-solving; single-location settings save on budget and heighten narrative tension; using a different genre can bring a new dimension to a case

Upskilling talent on set

Orchard Studios used the production as an internal training pipeline, moving some of their unscripted workforce into scripted.

Lippiett explained that a dedicated, nimble crew allowed the production to remain intimate, whilst giving people a chance to expand their skills.

“We have training pathways on all our productions at Orchard Studios, so we made sure that people had opportunities that perhaps they wouldn’t have had before,” Lippiett noted.

He highlighted what can happen when teams pivot to new areas: “The researcher at Orchard became involved in wardrobe and became invaluable on set. We kind of looked on it as an opportunity to allow documentary talent to flex their drama muscles, get drama experience and give them the creative freedom.”

There was a high creative bar set by director Paula Wittig and director of photography, Jim Incledon - who has shot drama and docs - and the small team “felt strongly about this story, this script, and the purpose of this production. So people went above and beyond. Everybody worked very, very hard” and “we stretched the budget as far as we possibly could”, observed Lippiett.

Takeaways: a smaller crew can be an upskilling opportunity; a tight, dedicated team can create a faster, more intimate shooting environment

Navigating duty of care and compliance

When dealing with high-profile, real-life cases, factual accuracy is vital.

Orchard Studios’ production relied on verbatim writing techniques and using established public records as sources to ensure the script remained as true to the facts as possible.

Lippiett pointed out that the writer, Philip Ralph, has a history of verbatim drama docs, such as Walking Wounded and Einstein and the Bomb.

“We relied on the available material and the testimony of the direct people involved,” Lippiett said. “We wanted to stay true to the spirit of the material.”

When it came to managing the sensitive nature of the case and handling duty of care towards the McCanns, the production team dealt with a long-term associate of the family.

Lippiett explained: “They’re not involved editorially, but we worked with a trusted associate who knows the family very well to keep them informed at the scripting stage.” That person also watched the final film and informed the McCanns of details such as the TX date.

Takeaways: hiring experienced factual writers minimises legal and compliance risks; sticking to public records helps journalistic integrity; use a trusted intermediary to keep subjects informed without compromising editorial independence

Securing international distribution

Because the subject matter has a lot of international interest, Orchard Studios was able to get a distribution advance to help ensure as much money went on screen as possible.

“We secured an international distributor who will take the film out internationally in order to kind of help fund the production,” Lippiett added.

He does not yet know what sales are like but acknowledged that the idea of “a victim who becomes a suspect” within just a couple of days is a “compelling” strand.

In fact, also for 5, Orchard is making a drama called Suspect: The Road Rage Killer about Tracie Andrews, who murdered her fiancé Lee Harvey in 1996, but initially claimed he had been killed by a man in a road rage incident.

Takeaways: speak to international distributors early to unlock advance funding; there is usually an appetite for globally-recognised true crime dramas

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The industry is under unprecedented pressure to make budgets go further.

Finances are stretched and commissioners want more for less.

AI can help, not only by speeding up your admin but also your production.

But what are the latest tools, what do they do and which ones should you use? That was the topic of conversation during a panel session called ‘How AI is transforming my indie’ at Indielab’s Content Futures 2026.

So we’ve extracted some of the highlights and advice from that day from two indie leaders at the vanguard of the new technology in TV: Deep Fusion CEO and co-founder Ben Field and Jason Mitchell, founder of The Connected Set.

As Field said: “The industry is under pressure, money needs to go further and that means we need to look at every efficiency gain we possibly can in order to get as much on screen as possible out of the money that’s available.”

Read on to find out:

• How vibe coding your own software can save you money

• The tools that will help you streamline archive and editing

• How AI can help with your YouTube channel and production schedule

• The latest AI regulation and business tools

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