SCOT- LAND - Scottish Screen

made in scotlanD TV
4IP
For over two decades, Channel 4 has made a
name for itself as a creative and innovative
broadcaster, producing programming
that challenges viewers, offering fresh
perspectives that reflect our diverse society. But to
stay relevant in a fully digital world Channel 4 needs
to extend its values across multiple platforms and
in 2008 it formed its new 4 Innovation for the Public
Fund, or ‘4iP’, an investment fund set up to help
support public service content in digital media. This
bold and exciting partnership aims to invest up to
£50 million in publicly valuable digital content and
services over the next two years based throughout
the UK.
“As part of its 2008 Next On 4 strategy, Channel
4 made the decision to invest in a new breed of
independent company,” says Ewan McIntosh, Digital
Commissioner for Scotland, Northern Ireland and
The North East. “We’re matching that in Scotland
with support from public funders too: Scottish
Screen and Scottish Enterprise. We take ideas in all
the time through our online submissions system
(http://submit.4iP.org.uk) and invest in the ideas
which share the channel’s values of doing things
first, inspiring change in the lives of people in
Britain and making trouble.”
“For example, we’re working with a company called
Digital Goldfish in Dundee, who are creating an
animated iPhone game which raises the awareness
in young people about what abusing alcohol can do
to their bodies. It’s a subversive, funny, important,
educational project. The iPhone app store is a hard
market to tap into, but one where there’s a lot of
interest right now.”
4iP will hold a fresh series of briefing events across
the UK this year, and McIntosh points out that
the fund has increased the number of projects in
which it’s investing, from 3% earlier this year to
5% of projects submitted now;
the chances have never been
higher for getting an investment
in your idea from the fund.
“We’re exploring new ways of
investing, new ways of making
revenues in an online world.
When you’re making a television
show, for example, the spend is
made on the broadcast itself with
revenue made through adverts
and sponsorship. Working online
is different, we’re generally
not making stuff for C4.com,
with projects normally hosted
elsewhere, like on an application
store or a new website,” says
McIntosh. “We’re therefore
looking at hugely varying models
for the independent company
to generate revenues and keep
the service, site or application
alive. We don’t want companies
to think they deliver an idea then
walk away. To me, the point at
which the idea is delivered is
the point where the work of 4iP
really begins. We provide ongoing
support to the projects for some
time, and make sure that they find
their place in a busy new media
landscape.”
However, McIntosh stresses
that 4iP shouldn’t be seen as
a benevolent fund purely just
interested in innovation.
“We want 4iP projects to be
powerful new ways of delivering
public value, but we also
need some of our ideas to be
commercial propositions. We
can’t fund projects in perpetuity
and there may come a point with
some of our projects that we
have to leave the idea to wither,
knowing this may leave the
company with something they
can’t maintain. We’re seeking an
entrepreneurial attitude, whether
that’s a long-standing independent
company or agency, or a one-man
company that only just started
up.”
Other projects getting 4iP support
include FestBuzz.com, a service
which crowdsources the public’s
opinions of Edinburgh Festival
shows rather than relying on
the reviews of newspaper and
magazine critics, showing the
differences between what the
public and the professional
reviewers think.
“I’m interested solely in the
quality of ideas, services or
platforms which people will love
using or will genuinely change
people’s lives. Sometimes people
will say that they ‘don’t know what
4iP is looking for,’ but I reckon the
real challenge is understanding
what new media with a public
service goal looks like. Ultimately,
a lot comes down to the passion
of people making these ideas
become reality, and finding
effective ways of measuring the
impact of a project. Often, figures
52