Escape to the Chateau indie sets sights on digital

Spark Media Partners has set its sights on the digital and international space and setting down root in the nations and regions with local partners.

The Richmond-based indie, best known for its Kindling Media imprint’s returning Channel 4 series Escape to the Chateau, which is currently in production for series six and seven, is focusing on digital content under newly-appointed creative lead Joff Powell.

“Any indie will tell you that landing a hit returning brand is really challenging in the current landscape,” he said. “While Escape is a beautiful brand that we are very proud of, with our collective skill set, there are other genres that we can get into.”

Powell, a former Second Star exec and BBC Worldwide commissioning editor, joined Spark Media in July and immediately sat down with co-founders Mark Baker and Steve Havers and talk strategy.

He also made his first hire, bringing in former Gobstopper development producer Niall Highgate in the same role.

Spark has dipped its toe in digital content with by producing and releasing a pilot of youth-skewing quiz show Grid Master on YouTube.

The pilot was a co-production with After Party Studios, a company co-founded by Callux (Callum McGinley), who also helms the show. The two have a non-exclusive partnership.

The pilot, posted in June of this year, has had 2m views on YouTube.

“We think digital is a huge area for growth,” continued Powell. “There’s ripe opportunity with the FAANGs, BBC3 and Channel 4, which has a short-form strategy at the moment.”

He added that the strategy will allow the indie to target the 16-34 demographic and trial new formats.

“We’ve already made the show and proved that people are engaged with it. So that’s a huge driving pillar of our strategy moving forward.”

International ambitions

Meanwhile, Spark’s distribution and development deal with Sky Studios, inked in 2014, has helped them navigate the international space.

“They go through our slate and that helps us develop things with international appeal, they also tell us what the l markets are looking for so we can make clear strategy drives,” added Powell.

A partnership that may prove fruitful closer to home is that with Glasgow-based Beezr Studios, which Spark hopes will help it to get its grounding in the nations and regions.

Powell said the two indies have some ideas that are “quite far down the line” with broadcasters.

“Hopefully we would one day be able to put our own production outfits into the nations and regions.”

The indie is keen to co-develop programming with on-screen talent, much like they did Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree with Escape to the Chateau.

The team is working on a pilot, based on an idea brought to them by a young creative who is not from a television background.

Powell extends that invitation to collaborate to TV execs “at the top of their game” who are seeiking a new challenge but not yet ready to go it alone and set up their own indie.

“We have a good commercial sensibility in terms of attracting those people here and helping them to develop what they want to do by working with us.”