Rather than pitching formats either face to face or via email, the indie is using a secure online portal that allows in-house and external development staff to work together on a concept, and also gives commissioning editors access to format ideas.
Called Idea Feed, the concept was devised and built by IPTV entrepreneur and Devil's Lane founder Alex Cameron. He believes that it gives his company a competitive advantage as commissioning editors can get involved with ideas straight away.
“I like to think we are putting control back into editors' and commissioners' hands,” he explained. “They can log in and browse for new programmes at their leisure instead of being buried under an avalanche of pitches every day [and] they can be involved from the beginning.”
Commissioners can search by genre, theme, timeslot and target audience. They can also read episode treatments and see who else is interested in an idea. At the same time multiple development staff can work on a concept.
“Using an online system has also meant we are free to collaborate wherever we are,” said Cameron. “We can invite perspectives from collaborators in different countries even if we can't be in the same room.”
Idea Feed, which went live last week, took Cameron and his technical team two weeks to build.
The Devil's Lane line-up includes creative director Cameron and producers Joanne Reay and Jessica Roscoe. More appointments are expected in the coming weeks.
Cameron sold his first company, the IPTV and VoD consultancy Digital TX, to an unnamed content broker in April.
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