The world of TV development has always been an amorphous domain. But in recent years, there has been more dialogue breaking down its intrinsic problems and pushing for change. In 2025, for example, producer Emma Young spoke openly about the lack of credit given to her development exec partner, whose idea eventually became the unscripted Netflix series Celebrity Bear Hunt.
For format creators, what has always been a murky area is now becoming a minefield in a risk-averse climate for unscripted. For every imported format that has thrived, such as The Traitors, Gladiators or The Assembly, there is a Survivor UK or The Summit that fails to take off. (Viewers will likely give The Box a little more time before reaching a verdict.) Meanwhile, original British IP series tend to be hit or miss with audiences. Secret Genius was a strong offering from Channel 4 that will return for an extended second series, but the Graham Norton-fronted The Neighbourhood fell flat for ITV.
Audiences are deeply fragmented and broadcasters are contending with the distractions of social video. The workers who bear the brunt of the collateral damage? Development execs.
At last month’s Edinburgh TV Festival, producers discussed the dearth of recent original British unscripted formats to land in the UK and travel around the world and the pressures that teams are under. A key takeaway was that development is steadily encroaching into unpaid pre-production. A weakened industry puts power dynamics in sharp relief and, in this case, producers don’t have much of a choice: if they want the commission, they need to go above and beyond - and then keep going.
“There is a strange, unwritten issue around how much free work somebody should be willing to do before it breaks them and when it comes to smaller production companies, it’s not just breaking the individual; it’s breaking businesses as well,” says Faraz Osman, founder of Gold Wala, which recently produced LumoTV’s BSL dating show Hold My Hand.
Osman, who was part of Edinburgh’s Formats Under Pressure panel, went a step further and presented a plan designed to bring more accountability in commissioning. His idea of giving every commissioner an allotted budget to greenlight whatever ideas they like galvanised the Edinburgh audience and found support with fellow panelists.
Osman spoke to The Indie Hustle about some of the key issues raised in the session and his master plan to make development great again.
Read on to learn:
Why development teams are taking on more unpaid tasks to get to greenlight
How a lack of rules and transparency in development is squeezing producers
How an allocation of budget could empower commissioning editors
Why commissioners need to stop managing upwards
The unwritten rules
Every part of the industry is being squeezed, says Osman, but the brunt of the cost is being shouldered by production companies “who are just hoping that one win will mitigate all of those costs” and get a show over the line.
But with actual production budgets being squeezed as well, the executive says the time has finally come to start getting honest about development costs.
Producers are finding that commissioners are asking them to complete more tasks before getting to greenlight. This includes making endless versions of a deck, tweaking game ideas and sometimes even casting via taster tapes.
The rule of thumb ought to be that if you’re extending yourself to deliver some kind of asset that is a tangible item, that should be charged for. “You can probably push back and say, ‘Yes, sure we can do that, but this is going to cost you,’” explains Osman. “But there is always this weird dance between commissioners and production companies of having to do certain things to keep your idea alive, or you just get that quick ‘no.’”
Producers underline that there are “no rules” in development, particularly as paid development is scarcer and this can allow commissioners to take advantage of indies.
“We need to figure out how we can meet the challenges of development in a way that is not just about a commissioner asking for more and more and more off spec, and a production company just having to deliver that in the hope that they might get a green light at the end of it,” says Osman. “The risk is loaded on the production company almost to quite a breaking point.”
Takeaways: more production companies are shouldering the burden of lengthy and costly development processes; commissioners keep asking for more assets before greenlight
The commissioner’s CV
While it’s common for development executives to work in-house at US broadcasters, that practice hasn’t translated to the UK. Now British producers are making a case as to why it should.
“Working with internal development teams makes sense because if they’re selling it upwards [at the broadcaster], they can then work out what’s needed to sell the idea upwards and they can bear some of the costs and we can bear some of the costs,” says Osman.
A commissioner’s experience coming into the role can be critical. Someone with no prior experience of development is probably more likely to ask for assets without paying for them. However, some execs can also go too far in the direction where they use indies to get their own ideas away.
“It’s fine if you have the conversation and it’s laid out that [the commissioner] has had this idea and wants to work with you on it,” says Osman. “But when you present an idea to a commissioning editor and then they change it into what they want to do, that can be tricky.”
A commissioning editor doesn’t need to have the whole gamut of experience that a producer might have. But they do need to have a full understanding of timelines and what’s realistic for a production company to deliver, says Osman.
Ultimately, it’s challenging to know where the lines of good conduct are because “development is still the woolliest area of the TV industry,” he says.
Takeaways: it’s worth looking up the experience of a commissioning editor as it will likely dictate your development process and what is asked of you; commissioners must be mindful of what an indie is up against
Osman’s ‘20% challenge’ to combat ‘managing upwards’
There’s a sense that more commissioners are managing upwards, meaning they are trying to meet their individual boss’s expectations and tastes, rather than think of the company’s needs as a whole. Many believe this is holding the sector back from pushing through truly original ideas.
“I’ve seen commissioning editors get frustrated that they want to do something, but they’re getting blocked by having to sell it upwards, and then production companies get frustrated because the arbiter of their ideas is not necessarily the person they’ve spoken to,” says Osman. “That is causing real problems.”
His challenge is for programming chiefs to empower commissioners by setting aside 20% of their budget to allow them to get their own ideas away.
“What if you had a channel that said, ‘If you come and become a commissioning editor with us, it would be expected that a certain part of your budget is yours and you back that idea and you take responsibility for it,’” says Osman. “If a commissioning editor really believes in it, then it goes into that pot, and they don’t need to feel like they have to change the idea to meet the tastes and sensibilities of their boss or their boss’s boss.”
Empowering commissioners at channels would go a long way to improve relationships with the production sector, says Osman.
“If we started seeing that happening, we could then tailor our ideas to certain commissioning editors because we know that that person has got a similar taste or vibe to a particular idea that we’ve got and we can target it at them,” he says. “Whereas currently what’s happening is it’s just a relationship thing. Who is it that responds to your emails that you can get on board and can send you and your idea up the chain?”
Takeaways: if you empower commissioners to greenlight shows according to their own tastes, it will unlock more creative pitches and ideas
“We don’t know where we’re meant to go”
There are drastic changes to commissioning ahead at broadcasters such as Channel 4, where the shock merger of the documentaries, fact ent, reality and entertainment and specialist factual teams into one commissioning unit is expected to result in a significant reduction in commissioning roles.
Meanwhile, a Change.org petition targeting the BBC is making the rounds and demanding a “more informed level of scrutiny on all BBC content and commissioning personnel.” Effectively, it is calling for an independent body that would assess the decisions of the commissioning teams against the broadcaster’s remit. The petition currently has more than 1,000 signatures.
These movements suggest there is disruption ahead in the commissioning landscape. Osman falls short of demanding KPIs of BBC commissioners, as the petition is suggesting, but he points out that more clarity is needed from PSBs if they’re to keep pace with streaming rivals - many of whom, rather ironically, are abundantly clear about what they’re looking for.
“They take all of your rights. They expect the best of the best of the best, and they don’t want to see anything else uncompromising in that way,” says Osman. “And there have been conversations about how they only work with the biggest production companies because of the levels of production values they expect, and they’re not there to train people; they’re there to satisfy their subscribers and that’s what they do.”
But on the other side, particularly where public money is involved, “the BBC and Channel 4 are becoming less clear, and I think we need to have a much clearer understanding.”
Osman believes, for instance, that in the unscripted space all first-run shows should only be commissioned from British-owned indies and “weighted towards regional indies, indies with diverse backgrounds and smaller indies.”
Companies like Gold Wala, he says, should not be expected to compete with behemoths like Studio Lambert for commissions. “Because companies like ours don’t know where we’re meant to go,” he says. “If we’re not meant to go to Channel 4 or the BBC, where are we meant to go?”
Takeaways: more clarity is needed around the rules of engagement for indies working with the BBC and Channel 4
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