S4C has announced the details of a new fund to support co-productions for television.
The fund will be operated on a commercial basis by S4C Digital Media Ltd, a commercial subsidiary of S4C.
The initial size of the fund will be £1m and will be increased by £1m each year for the next three years.
Money from the fund will be available to invest in co-productions for broadcast on S4C, co-funded productions for S4C, content or formats for S4C with commercial potential and for the commercialisation of S4C content, brands or characters.
The fund’s objectives include generating a return on investments for SDML, attracting additional finance in content from other sources and promoting the competitiveness of S4C’s programme suppliers.
As a general guideline, individual investments will be in the range of £50,000 - £200,000 and the fund will not invest more than 15% of the total budget of a production. The fund may make higher investments if warranted in particular circumstances, subject to SDML Board approval.
Arwel Ellis Owen, Chief Executive of S4C, said, “I hope the co-production fund will make the best use of the commercial monies in order to support and give impetus to production companies to think in ambitious terms of content for the future.”
Applicants may contact SDML at the email address co-productions@s4c.co.uk
