New short form content includes scripted comedy; explorations of culture and society, extraordinary real-life stories; and fresh takes on dating, confession and makeover formats
Channel 4 has commissioned a new slate of short form digital originals across the genre spectrum as it builds on its success in this area. Over the past year, Channel 4 digital originals have seen over 200million views across social media platforms, with nearly 270million minutes watched and almost 4.5million engagements. In that time the digital commissioning team has worked with over 30 different production companies, of which over a third are based in the nations and regions or ethnically diverse in their leadership.
This new slate, which is commissioned by the newly cemented digital commissioning team who are based across Leeds, Glasgow and London and include Digital Commissioners, Navi Lamba and Laura Marks, and Digital Commissioning Execs, Thomas Pullen, Joe Churchill and Evie Buckley, delivers on the broadcasters’ Future4 strategy vision to represent unheard voices, challenge with purpose and reinvent entertainment.
The team report into the new Head of Digital Commissioning, Sacha Khari, who in turn reports into Head of Youth and Digital, Karl Warner.
Karl Warner said: “The digital commissioning team, working closely with 4Studio have already produced some brilliantly popular digital originals that our young audiences have been watching in their millions. With this fresh slate of content we continue to build on our ambitious digital strategy as part of Future4, with new talent and voices, stories of the unexpected and the trialling of a whole range of new entertainment formats, that we hope audiences will love.”
A whole host of exciting new content and returning formats are landing on Channel 4 and E4’s social platforms across the likes of Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter, with some also appearing on All 4. The new commissions include:
Comedy in the form of 12 brand new broad, bold and relatable short form comedy strand featuring emerging talent and delivering disruptive, anarchic and high-impact comedy take on themes like nostalgia, pop culture, work, sport, socialising and more that aim to offer a smart-but-silly view on being alive in 2021.
They feature a huge array of UK comedy writing and performing talent, including names like Jack Barry, Felicity Ward, Mark Silcox, Sapphire McIntosh, Natasha Brown, Joe Sutherland, Nick Helm, Leila Navabi, Amy Gledhill, Jen Brister, Sunil Patel, David Mills, Jen Ives, Jordan Grey, Jason Forbes, and many more.
The talented comedy writers tackle everything from female pilots navigating sexism, to secret agents on a budget and the pitfalls of investing in gunge, the slimy substance ever-present on 90’s TV.