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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Brock Media’s Sarah Brocklehurst is one of the UK’s most respected indie film producers, but in between the long years waiting to get features off the ground, even movie producers need a side hustle.

In Brocklehurst’s case, the “side hustle” involves making Amazon-owned audio giant Audible’s biggest audiobook production to date, its 2025 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

But as Brocklehurst tells The Indie Hustle this week, making the leap from film and television into audiobooks is something that any inventive producer is capable of.

“It’s all very transferable,” says Brocklehurst. “If you can script edit something episodic and if you have relationships with writers and an idea that could be suited to audio, you should be able to pitch it.”

The timing couldn’t be better. The audiobook industry has been on a steady growth trajectory in the UK. NielsenIQ data revealed in March that audiobook purchases rose by 5% in 2025, and revenue was up 11% to just over £270 million. Among audiobook platforms, Audible is the market leader, followed by Spotify.

With more than a third of listeners active in the space for more than three years, the market is said to be maturing, which means that companies such as Audible are upping the ante on their offerings to customers. Brock Media’s Pride and Prejudice had an all-star cast including Harris Dickinson, Marisa Abela, Bill Nighy and Glenn Close, and the company’s second Audible project, Heathcliff, starred Daryl McCormack.

While Brock’s primary focus will always be film and TV, Brocklehurst echoes what podcast experts such as Steve Ackerman have previously told The Indie Hustle: “If you can make film and TV, the likelihood is you can make audio.”

However, diversifying into audio didn’t just happen for Brock: Brocklehurst first executed a careful strategy that involved self-financing a pair of podcasts.

Read on to find out:

• How Brock Media self-financed its own proof of concept for audio platforms

• Why partnerships in podcasting can help break into an unknown field

• Why casting and scheduling can be easier on audiobooks

• The budget ranges for premium productions

• Why now is a good time to approach giants like Audible

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Things are about to get easier and more lucrative for producers and creators wanting to make money from digital platforms such as YouTube.

For years podcasts on the main audio platforms have been able to use targeted, dynamic advertising (more of what that means in the story). Now Apple has allowed it for video and YouTube is due to follow suit.

But what does it mean for you and how can you harness this key change to increase your income?

This week we spoke to board advisor and consultant Steve Ackerman (who was previously Sony Music Entertainment’s global podcasting boss) about the new possibilities available.

So read on to find out:

• Why platforms’ new ad models can game-change your business

• How to capitalise on competition between podcasting platforms

• New advertising and income sources

• Where podcasting is heading next

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It may feel like half your LinkedIn contacts are building ‘portfolio careers,’ but TV makers may be surprised to learn that they should be taking the same approach to production.

Indielab’s Content Futures programme last week saw top executives from Banijay Rights, Fremantle, South Shore Productions and the podcast world detail the revenue streams savvy producers need to be considering if they are to succeed in today’s market.

How will you go beyond your original commission? Where can your content live? What is your multi-platform strategy? These questions need to be top of mind in development, financing, production and distribution.

Today, The Indie Hustle breaks down key learnings about the future of content, including how indies can best work with brands, squeeze the most revenue out of digital and explore the world of opportunity in audio.

Read on to find out:

• Why independent data-gathering is key to a successful brand partnership

• The in-demand genres still landing sales for international distributors

• Why any indie can recalibrate as a podcast prodco

• Why a two-year digital strategy for back catalog shows is essential

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Breaking into branded? Fund your own data research

In the span of five years, South Shore Productions has become one of the UK’s most prolific indies working in brand-funded entertainment, with credits including Champions: Full Gallop, The Great Escapers and M&S: Dress the Nation. These shows now comprise one third of the company’s revenue.

As The Indie Hustle recently reported, there’s no set model of how to work with brands, but South Shore co-founder Andrew MacKenzie said his team often has the same conversations with brands as they do with TV commissioners, particularly as select brands have marketing budgets that are equal to the commissioning budgets of some channels.

“You’re trying to persuade them that television can be part of their story and can give them a significant return on investment by dealing directly with what their story is,” said MacKenzie. “So, it’s a really similar relationship to the one [you have with] a commissioner.”

Brands are, in fact, “much more commercial” than some commercial broadcasters in that they are data-hungry and keen to see immediate returns on investment. To meet this need, South Shore works with an independent agency to collate data on how their branded commissions have landed. “We want it to be independent,” said MacKenzie. “We want it to be verifiable and not something we’ve made up.”

Having that data means the indie can then tell British Racing, their partner on ITV1’s Champions, that 70% of the audience is more likely to go to a horse racing event having seen their show. Or Aldi that their Channel 4 show Aldi: The Next Big Seller means people are more likely to set foot in an Aldi store.

Takeaways: data is imperative for brands, which need to see speedy ROI; fund your own data collection to present independent findings

Think beyond the commission

Fremantle VP of commercial strategy Jill Kellie’s resounding advice for indies was to think beyond their original commission and keep their eyes firmly on digital and what success in that realm looks like.

“Sometimes you just want reach and eyeballs, or you just want to look at how to exploit your back catalogue,” said Kellie. But mastering digital isn’t only about posting episodes and expecting revenue.

“It’s not just a ‘dump and run’,” continued Kellie. “You’ve got to work at it over months. You’ve got to build up a two-year content strategy about how you’re hosting that content with regards to format, the duration of that content, understand what’s working [and what] is really driving watch time from a revenue perspective.”

If a piece of content isn’t performing well online, Kellie advised revisiting thumbnail imagery, repackaging and reposting, or even crafting a compilation.

“It’s really about understanding the content you have and how that can work and also who you can work with, because all of the big studios are really keen to work with third parties in this space,” said Kellie.

The exec noted that Fremantle, whose content racked up 35 billion views on YouTube and Facebook in 2025 alone, has done “a whole host of deals” in the last 12 months with UK indies across a range of content.

Similarly, Banijay Rights boss and distribution veteran Cathy Payne noted that the company is hyper-focused on what happens to content beyond its “premier run.”

“Behind the [subscription] wall on Amazon is all revenue share and that does huge business for us,” said Payne.

The exec added that Roku has been surprisingly lucrative. “I thought there was a mistake when our figures came through from January for Roku and in [one] month, it was nearly as much as the whole of 2024 on a title I would have never believed.”

Takeaways: plan a two-year strategy for your content on digital; Fremantle is working with UK indies on digital deals for back catalog content; premier run no longer be-all end-all for distributors; Roku increasingly lucrative

You’re a podcast prodco. You just don’t know it yet

TV producers wondering how to expand into audio may not realise it, but they have a number of relevant and transferable skills, according to Steve Ackerman, the former head of global podcasts for Sony Music Entertainment.

“You know how to tell stories or create formats; you may be a specialist in a subject area; you may have really good links with celebrity talent or well-known hosts,” said Ackerman. “You obviously know how to shoot, light and edit and it’s a lot easier to learn audio editing skills if you have video editing skills, than to go the other way around.”

The value of podcasting has changed tremendously in recent years. Ten years ago, a podcast was seen as a proof of concept that could help you sell a show into a global streamer. But in the last 12 to 18 months, “it’s swung to the other side,” said Ackerman, noting that Netflix is now aggressively buying video podcasts. (Stay tuned for a deep-dive Indie Hustle interview with Steve Ackerman in the coming weeks.)

Takeaways: producers can organically transfer video productions and editing skills to audio; strong visualised podcasts are in demand

In demand: factual, scalable formats and lower-cost drama

What was Banijay Rights’ top-selling show out of February’s London TV Screenings? It wasn’t a pricey period drama, but rather the BBC’s Clickbait Clinic fronted by Stacey Dooley. Banijay Rights’ Payne said the Nutopia-produced series, which interrogates the wildest health trends on social media, was the company’s “most popular show.”

“Stacey isn’t really well known [internationally], but it was touching on a subject that is global,” said Payne. The title’s success suggests there is now “big demand for factual content,” added the exec, who urged producers not to underestimate what a global “calling card” valuable British IP can be.

Payne also underlined the importance of crafting scalable formats that can be made on either a huge budget or funded by multiple partners. Meanwhile, on the scripted side, she said buyers are looking for commercial shows with reasonable budgets. Reflecting on recent investments, Payne said four third-party scripted projects have been made with “good talent” for between £1.6 million to £2.2 million.

“They’ve been able to get other partners involved and look at clever tax breaks,” said Payne.

The exec said the market is still seeing a lot of “enhanced presales,” which means a territory will come in early, have some degree of editorial input (without driving the project) and be able to call a title an original. However, Payne advised that if producers want to land enhanced pre-sales on their projects, “You need to ask why that [country] needs to buy this before it comes to market. It has to be something that has just as much story interest in that market as it does here.”

Takeaways: demand returning for British factual content; scalability of a format is more important than ever; appetite among buyers for lower cost drama; enhanced presales still popular but need to have a reason for them

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Getting a new BBC daytime commission is like gold dust at the moment.

As is finding new sources of revenue and, if you’re a true indie, keeping a regular team on staff.

But Chepstow and Bath-based One Tribe TV have managed all three and they are also one of the companies selected by the BBC to pilot a straight to YouTube series.

How have they done it and what is their recipe for success?

Read on to find out:

• How to deliver in daytime

• The app that is rivalling TikTok for people's attention

• Innovative ways to get funding for YouTube channels

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When you’re tasked with getting a drama from blank page to an air date over the course of 12 months, you tend to think long and hard about the right business partner.

For Clapperboard Studios managing director Mike Benson, who is often tackling a yearly turnaround for his slate of shows for 5 and parent company, Paramount UK, distributors have become the linchpin behind a rapidly growing scripted slate that includes The Good Ship Murder, The Ex-Wife, Girl Taken and the just-announced The Day starring Minnie Driver.

The disruption to the traditional role of the distributor who has gone from handling straight international sales to navigating complex deficit financing models, editorial input and even commissioning has characterised the better part of the last decade. But their role in a challenged market for drama makers is unparalleled.

“Our relationships with distributors are as important as our relationship with channels,” says Benson, who established unscripted indie Chalkboard Productions in 2013 before setting up Clapperboard in 2020 for scripted commissions. “Distributors, in the current climate, are taking more risks than ever.”

That’s largely because producers can no longer rely on plum sales into the US, and this has had deep ramifications for the level of minimum guarantee (MG) distributors are able to offer (in scripted, a robust US sale used to constitute 40% to 50% of an MG, says Benson). A sluggish American market means “it’s increasingly important that you’re developing something that’s aligned with what the distribution market is telling you they can finance and sell on,” notes the exec.

It also means that choosing the right distributor for your project is paramount. Clapperboard, which is part of France’s Studio TF1 (formerly Newen Studios), works with a range of different distribution partners for its scripted projects, from boutique operators to larger superindies. There are, Benson says, pros and cons to both ways of working.

This week, the Clapperboard boss shares his tips on choosing the right distributor for your project.

Read on to learn:

· The various models of developing with distributors

· Why boutique outfits can have an edge on the superindies

· How a challenged US market is affecting distributor minimum guarantees

· Why talent attachments can give you a head start with distributors

· Why the industry can no longer afford to make limited miniseries

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Sponsorship? If your organisation would like to find out about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email hello@theindiehustle.com

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This week sees the start of the eagerly-anticipated BBC comedy Twenty Twenty Six - the follow up to Twenty Twelve and W1A.

The latest instalment in the Ian Fletcher franchise of corporate and interpersonal dynamics is based around a global football tournament in the USA that is absolutely, definitely not (for branding and legal reasons) the FIFA World Cup.

For the show, north London’s Mill Hill doubles as Miami and, whilst filming took place before the war in Iran began, such moves could become more prevalent as the industry tries to factor in the current geopolitical situation.

With a looming energy crisis, flight costs increasing and some countries introducing measures such as fuel rationing, many are working out how it affects production.

So this week we’ve taken a deep dive into what the impact might be, what broadcasters and streamers are doing about it and how you can think strategically to mitigate some of the effects.

So read on to find out:

• The current state of play

• How to plan during unpredictable times

• Lessons that can be learnt from other productions

• Broadcasters and streamers’ response

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Hiring? We feature paid job listings, to book a listing, email hello@theindiehustle.com

Sponsorship? If your organisation would like to find out about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email hello@theindiehustle.com

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In a time where high-end period dramas have become challenging to produce in Britain due to soaring costs, Channel 4’s rags-to-riches series, A Woman of Substance is breaking the mould.

The Barbara Taylor Bradford novel was first adapted for Channel 4 in 1985, with its finale pulling in 13.8 million viewers, the broadcaster’s highest audience ever.

While that series squeezed the infamous novel into three parts, The Forge has again brought working-class heroine Emma Harte’s story to life for Channel 4, but this time over eight episodes. It’s a lengthy order that’s a rarity in today’s market, where terrestrial period fare is often limited to four or six parts. There’s also a premium sheen that makes it look far more lavish than it was to make.

The Forge’s joint managing director Beth Willis has been immersed in period drama over the past six years, helping to shepherd the company’s glossy series The Buccaneers for Apple TV+ across three seasons. But A Woman of Substance didn’t have the same streaming budget to play with, and Willis and her team had to make terrestrial pounds go much further, bolstered by deficit financing from distributor Banijay Rights, which pre-sold the show to BritBox in the U.S.

So, how do you stretch a terrestrial budget across eight episodes of period fare in today’s market?

Read on to find out:

• How to find stories with modern sensibilities within period book IP

• Willis’ two “secret weapons” to making modest budgets go further

• The one mistake producers make that becomes a money pit

• Plans for future series of A Woman of Substance

Hiring? We feature paid job listings, to book a listing, email hello@theindiehustle.com

Sponsorship? If your organisation would like to find out about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email hello@theindiehustle.com

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Making ‘dusty’ period dramas feel modern

The first of a seven-book series, A Woman of Substance centers on Yorkshire-born Emma Harte (Jessica Reynolds), a maid at the grand Fairley Hall estate who strikes up an illicit romance with young Edwin Fairley. But when she falls pregnant, he casts her away and she’s forced to leave her family to make it on her own in Leeds as a seamstress. Emma vows to get revenge on the entire Fairley clan, and works her way up in the world.

The show opens in New York City with an elderly Emma (Brenda Blethyn), who has made good on her promise, and then some. She’s the richest woman in the world with a vast retail empire, but her legacy is in turmoil thanks to a PR crisis orchestrated by her own children.

Willis began developing the idea for A Woman of Substance in 2020, before Netflix released Bridgerton that December and upended what audiences should expect of the genre. Audience tastes have changed in the interim period, with viewers expecting new twists on the usual “corset” dramas.

“Pre-2020, period was having a bit of a dive, particularly for young people, because it didn’t speak to them,” says Willis, who joined the Banijay-backed Forge in 2018 after serving as Channel 4’s head of drama. “It was beginning to feel like a bit of a dusty genre that felt quite traditional.”

Bradford’s novel, published in 1979, had “all the history and all the texture” of a classic period entry, says Willis, “but it also had something I think would really resonate with a modern audience, which is an incredible female protagonist. Although [Emma] has lots of affairs and husbands and lovers throughout the book, getting married and finding the One is absolutely not what drives her.” Instead, Harte is fuelled by her determination to get revenge on the Fairley family.

It felt unusual for a TV drama to have a female protagonist “that isn’t either a detective who works really hard, or a love interest, or a messy Bridget Jones-type,” adds Willis.

As such, A Woman of Substance may be a period drama, but the producer hopes all these elements help elevate it to feel modern and fresh.

“Barbara Taylor Bradford always said about her book that having a female mogul going through the 20th century in a man’s world is a really interesting bit of history,” says Willis. “You see her fight for those contracts, and have to get married before she can get her mortgage. She doesn’t even have a right to vote in the first series.”

Takeaways: period dramas don’t need to feel dusty if you target stories that feel fresh and of the moment

Secret weapon #1: get scripts locked in early

As fresh as one’s idea may be, however, it’s tough to escape the sky-high costs of making premium drama in the U.K. where prices for crew, equipment and locations have been inflated due, in part, to streaming services driving up costs and the aftermath of the post-COVID boom years. In 2025, a number of leading drama figures spoke out about the crisis facing British broadcasters, who no longer have the budgets to fund uber-expensive dramas on their own.

Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky famously revealed that the series two shoot of the Tudor drama was almost called off weeks before cameras rolled due to budget pressures. Eventually, production went ahead by scrapping some costly exterior shots and centering most of the dialogue indoors.

Willis says she had two secret weapons on A Woman of Substance that helped the show stick within its budget range, which falls somewhere between £1.7 million to £2.3 million per hour.

Firstly, the producer worked closely with the show’s two writers, Katherine Jakeways and Roanne Bardsley, to get scripts finalised ahead of time in order to schedule the big location numbers.

“We shot in those places for just a few days, and we shot all episodes’ material in one go, so we didn’t go back to locations repeatedly throughout the series,” says Willis.

This way of shooting is “incredibly complicated” and tough for the cast and crew, “but we knew we had to scatter that scale across the series.”

It seems like a logical strategy, but this way of working is unusual. “The gap between a show being commissioned and shooting is so tight that there isn’t time to get scripts ahead of time,” Willis explains.

But if you don’t have the scripts and you need to return to an expensive location that’s far away from your base, that means “you’re having to put people in hotels, and if it’s a location that needs 100 extras, all in period costume, then you’re paying for that four times over, rather than once. And that adds up really, really quickly when you’re looking at multiple locations,” she continues.

“Channel 4 were really incredible in terms of supporting us with development and putting the money down to pay for those scripts ahead of time, which not all broadcasters are up for doing these days,” adds Willis. “That really allowed us to plan carefully about where that money was going to go.”

In reality, the show only has a handful of locations but by shooting those places in blocks, each episode looks as though it has a lot of variety and scale.

Takeaways: get scripts completed and signed off ahead of shooting so you can plan filming and save budget

Secret weapon #2: lean into your locations

Willis’ other trick on the show was leaning into the locations and landscapes available.

“We used Yorkshire as a landscape,” she says. “It’s beautiful countryside anyway, but that is free scale. And we made sure we shot in that landscape an awful lot.”

Throughout the show, Emma and other characters are often traipsing across the Moors, and there are plenty of breathtaking overhead shots that convey the beauty of the area, almost serving as a character on the show in its own right.

Meanwhile, Broughton Hall in North Yorkshire served as Fairley Hall, and plays a significant role in the series, appearing repeatedly for scenes shot outside the manor and in its gardens.

“We were lucky with Broughton Hall that it’s a private property, so unlike a National Trust property where you’re restricted with the hours that you can work, because they’ve got to open it to the public, Broughton Hall was very flexible, and allowed us to take it over completely when we were there, which was great and definitely helped.”

The way the show was filmed also meant that “we were booking those locations for tighter, shorter periods of time, rather than going back repeatedly.”

One of the show’s more challenging shoots was its big opening scene with an older Emma weaving through what may look like Manhattan on screen, but is actually Liverpool.

“It was a big number,” admits Willis. “Getting American cars and then actually making sure those cars looked like they were from the 1970s was a challenge for the art department,” she says. “But Liverpool is built in the same way that New York is, with that grid system. So, it really worked well.”

Will A Woman of Substance return for more series?

The Indie Hustle can reveal that scripts for series two are being developed, but haven’t yet received the greenlight. But Willis underlines that the first series alone is only half of the first book. “There are definitely more Emma Harte stories to tell,” she says.

Takeaways: lean into your natural backdrops and make them a focal point; find locations that provide extensive access

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At the press screening of Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards in London, Channel 5 chief content officer Ben Frow highlighted the current fashion for factual drama.

“There seems to be a trend for factual dramas that highlight issues,” he said. “And I’m proud we’re able to join that group of people who are highlighting a very serious issue; in this case the grooming of young men and abuse of power.”

Factual dramas require rigour, courage and working closely with commissioners. But they can pay dividends, as the pre-TX positive reaction to Power - which stars Martin Clunes as the disgraced BBC newsreader - shows.

It airs on 24 March on Channel 5 and ahead of its transmission we spoke with Wonderhood director of development Tom Garton about how it worked, what he thinks commissioners and audiences are looking for and what Wonderhood has in store.

So read on to find out:

⁃ How to navigate a factual drama

⁃ Garton’s strategies for success

⁃ Big questions TV is grappling with

⁃ What Wonderhood is focusing on

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Hiring? We feature paid job listings, to book a listing, email hello@theindiehustle.com

Sponsorship? If your organisation would like to find out about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email hello@theindiehustle.com

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