RT & NRK Norway announce winner of Format Pitching Forum RT and Norwegian national broadcaster NRK have announced today the winner of a 10,000 development fund to create a pilot of a brand new television format for both the Norwegian and Irish domestic markets.
The pitch was held yesterday at the Celtic Media Festival in Dungarvan, Co Waterfordwith Bucking the Trend, an original idea by Dublin based Sideline Productions emerging as the eventual winner in a closely fought contest. The format looks to change the lives of families with long term problems and change habits.
A call was put out in February for an impactful format to be pitched at the festival to a prestigious panel comprising Adrian Lynch, Channel Controller, RT One; Janet Frawley, Head of Formats RT ; Steiner Igdun, Commissioning Editor NRK; and Unni deg rd, Commissioning Editor independents for NRK. The idea needed to work for broadcast in both territories and five finalists got their chance to present their ideas to the panel at the culmination of the festival yesterday.
The other four finalists were Bees Nees Media from Scotland with No.1 Lonely Detective Agency, where two real private detectives track down the old friends, colleagues, schoolmates and lovers of two desperately lonely and connectionless older people. Irish entrants WAKA TV pitched Trading Faces, a beauty-swap' format which sees one extreme beauty addict swap beauty regimes with a makeup averse, low-maintenance fashion-phobe.
From Norway, Tom Erik Ruud - Billy Budd Sam Muir Studio pitched Eye Candy the show that aims to bring art back to the people and Rubicon TV AS pitched White Sails, a youth challenge format where ten arrogant, spoiled and lazy youngsters sail across the Atlantic to New York on a large sailing ship.
Sideline Productions now has 10 weeks to deliver a sizzle tape and full treatment to pitch back to the relevant channel controllers at RT and NRK. This inaugural event, RT s Format Farm Development Pitch is open to any production company or format creative house or individual in any country with a track record in format development. The aims of the Format Farm development pitch is to support and inspire creativity and innovation.
RT and NRK are looking for an original format which has not been previously commissioned/produced and exploited on any platform (linear or non linear) and for which all worldwide rights are available. The format should be innovative, original, be able to travel, be returnable and creatively distinctive.
The panel was adjudicated by Michelle Spillane, Director of RT Global. Michelle said: The response from to this first International Format Farm pitch run in partnership with NRK has been phenomenal. Supporting creativity and innovation is at the heart of Format Farm's philosophy as a development initiative, so the collaboration with NRK is a significant and exciting extension to the scheme which will open up more International opportunities for production companies to bring their formats to new markets. Once again we would like to congratulate Billy McGrath and Sideline Productions on their win.'
Unni deg rd NRK head of factual entertainment said: We are very happy about our collaboration with RT on format development, and the format pitch in Dungarvan has been an exciting process with an overwhelming response from production companies in both countries. Now we look forward to continue the process and hope it will result in a great format for both our markets and beyond.'
In further news from RT 's Format Farm, Scorchio, distributed internationally by Sony Pictures Television, has been greenlit by Channel Controller Bill Malone and has gone into production for RT 2. Irish indie WAKA is collaborating with the UK's Sharpjack Media on the new character led hidden camera show which pranks young people on holiday. Commissioned by Eddie Doyle, RT s Head of Comedy, Talent Development and Music, the show is executive produced by Warren Meyler for Waka TV and Elliot Johnson and Amanda Wilson for Sharp Jack Media.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
RT & NRK Norway announce winner of Format Pitching Forum RT and Norwegian national broadcaster NRK have announced today the winner of a 10,000 development fund to create a pilot of a brand new television format for both the Norwegian and Irish domestic markets. 
