David Farnor | On 27, Sep 2019

Channel 4 has announced the five creative partners who will produce content for its new short-form comedy pipeline. The initiative will provide a platform for exciting and distinctive emerging voices from across the UK to produce a series of bold, experimental comedy shorts. All the content will be showcased exclusively across Channel 4’s portfolio of social channels, including YouTube and Facebook.
The production companies selected in this commissioning round, which is dubbed ‘Sparks,’ are: Very Nice TV; The North East Comedy Hot House; Merman & Mermade; Mother’s Best Child and Blink Industries.

Each producer has been selected based on their strong and original creative ideas that will pack a punch and engage online audiences, as well as their ability to harness diverse talent from across the country, providing a launch pad for fresh comedy talent.

They will produce a combined total of 120 innovative shorts honing in on the interests and experiences of young audiences. Tones will range from the risky, to the mischievous to the feel good, creating new styles of sketch comedy, as well as referencing stand up, mime, musical comedy or animation.

Laura Marks, the Channel 4 Commissioner for the project said: “Showcasing new writers and talent from across the country and providing a platform for them to try the things they wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to do is hugely exciting for us. We look forward to unearthing the comic voices of the future and seeing how our online audiences respond.”

The shorts will land on Channel 4’s social channels from late Autumn 2019.

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