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Commissions

This site is no longer being updated

After exactly eight years of sharing development, commissioning and funding tips TVMole is retiring.

TVMole started as a way to share industry intelligence with a small but dedicated band of factual TV developers, at a time when development was barely recognised as a discrete discipline, with its own unique skillset and challenges, let alone a viable career choice. Over time, TVMole’s subscriber base gradually expanded from London, NYC and LA to reach development people in Sydney, Johannesberg, Buenos Aires and Lagos; visitors came to the website from every country in the world except Chad.

TVMole has acted as an archive of past commissions for those about to pitch, helped developers keep track of who had been hired and fired in the merry-go-round of broadcast commissioning and acted as signpost to development training and pitching opportunities. With the help of the industry intelligence shared on TVMole people have won funding, jobs, promotions and commissions.

In the last eight years the broadcast landscape has changed in all kinds of ways: channels have come and gone (or rebranded, some several times); genres have come and gone (redneck reality) and new shows have been premiered on social media platforms. US producers have moved into the UK and US cable channels have gone global. Netflix and Amazon joined the game and changed the rules on formats (Making a Murderer) ushering in the era of long-form documentaries; whilst broadcasters embraced short form and user generated content. The audience started their own channels on YouTube; brands became both producers and broadcasters (Red Bull, Viceland) and technology came (VR), conquered (fixed rig) or retreated (3D). All these changes were captured by TVMole in almost 12,000 posts, and more than 400 weekly newsletters.

But the time has come to bow out. Keeping up with ever increasing platforms has become increasingly challenging and time consuming, and the site is in serious need of updating. At the same time exciting new projects have started to take shape, so difficult decisions have had to be made about where to expend the most energy and attention. From now on, the energy that has been the driving force behind TVMole will be diverted to focus more on talent development and helping new, and not so new, talent develop their careers behind the camera in TV and film. The weekly newsletters will cease, and the site will no longer be updated but for the time being at least, TVMole will remain online so that you can still see the archives.

All your support over the past eight years has been greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who provided content, agreed to be interviewed, recommended TVMole to your colleagues and let me know of your successes – the positive feedback and appreciation kept the site going much longer than was originally intended. Thank you all.

TVMole

 

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