De-risking formats
WHY YOU NEED MORE THAN JUST A GOOD IDEA
The UK has long been one of the world’s great format exporters. MasterChef, Love Island and countless others have travelled far beyond their original market, creating enduring value for the producers, commissioners and broadcasters behind their success.
Formats development
But that pipeline is under pressure. At this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, the conversation around formats development was very consistent: fewer new ideas are being commissioned, and broadcasters increasingly look to proven international hits, established IP and reboots to mitigate financial risk.
A new format will always be a risk. But there are ways to give buyers, partners and audiences more reasons to back it.
Value in the ‘familiar’
One way of doing that is to give audiences something to latch onto.
For instance, when The Traitors launched in the Netherlands in 2021, it arrived in a market where Wie is de Mol? (The Mole) was already hugely popular. Yet De Verraders (The Traitors) had its clear points of familiarity: the format was positioned alongside The Mole and came from the same producers, launching straight after its latest run.
Every announcement, interview, or article is a chance to position your film or series within a broader international conversation (and over saturated marketplace).
That gave viewers a reason to be curious about it. There was already a cultural reference point, and the timing helped connect the new format with an audience that was likely to be receptive to it.
Ask: what else is happening in the market? What audiences or viewing habits already exist? Is there a programme, genre, talent or something in the cultural zeitgeist that can help give the idea some context?
The format itself still has to work. But making connections between the new and existing habits create less hurdles for an audience to cross, and more reasons for a commissioner to bet on something they haven’t seen before.
Build Build Build
There is an opportunity to test and build an audience before committing to the biggest possible version of a format.
Long before Beast Games arrived on Prime Video, MrBeast’s YouTube channel had established a huge audience around large-scale competition formats, with viewers already familiar with the mechanics, tone and personalities involved. Beast Games took that proposition into a much bigger production, and went on to become Prime Video’s most-watched unscripted series.
That doesn’t mean YouTube is a straightforward proving ground for television, or that we’re asking you to replicate Mr Beast’s level of success and following. What works on the platform doesn’t automatically translate to a linear or streaming audience, and the scale of a TV production brings its own challenges.
But building an audience before scaling an idea is useful. Producers can see what people respond to, what they share and whether there is enough interest to build a community around it. You can build metrics, create a discourse with potential fans and iterate your format before the big yes from a commissioner.
Positioning and discoverability matter
For an untested format, building awareness through effective marketing and comms is also about establishing its position: who is it for, why should they care, what makes it distinctive and what conversation can it own?
A strong visual identity, a recognisable premise, a cultural hook or an engaged community can all make a new format easier to understand and discover.
That investment can have commercial value too. It demonstrates audience interest, generates market momentum and can even create opportunities for partnerships – all of which gives buyers something tangible to respond to. It cannot guarantee a hit, but it can provide signals that help reduce uncertainty around the investment.
Be measured
New formats need time, investment and audience attention to establish whether they have the potential to travel. That means closer collaboration between producers and broadcasters, and a more methodical approach to development.
There will always be uncertainty around a new format. But if the industry can get better at generating evidence around audience interest and market potential before making the biggest investment, more ideas may get the opportunity to prove themselves.
Contact Percy & Warren today
Get in touch with us at Percy & Warren to talk about how to meet international partners, explore global co-pros, and use PR to position your company and content on an international level – no matter the language, format or stage.