The exciting thing about digital formats right now is that there still isn’t a single template. The way formats are developed, financed and distributed continues to evolve rapidly. A panel at TellyCast’s Digital Content Forum 2025 this week explored what might happen next.
Objekt’s Bart Frank moderated the session, with Sony Pictures TV’s Matt Ford, ITV Studios’ Mike Beale and Mako Studios’ Taf Makopa offering their views.
Ford started things off by talking about the new digital division that is being set up within Sony Pictures TV to make digital-first content
“New formats. New shows. New IP. A lot of it will be with creators,” he said. “But most importantly, we’re doing this for the long term. At the moment we’re exploring which creators we want to work with… It’s also really important that we do this in a way that’s going to be self-sustaining.”
“Ideally we’ll go into production in December with our first channel,” he added. “Our current plan has us launching three or four channels a year, but that depends on what the content is and who the creators are we’re working with.”
The emphasis is on the long term. “We’re not looking at this as a one or two-year thing. This is a six, seven year thing,” said Ford.
Beale talked about ITV Studios’ strategy, citing three key areas: taking existing brands into the creator ecosystem; turning ideas that “aren’t good enough for television, or RIGHT for television” into digital-first formats; and then helping creators to realise their own ideas.
“The biggest challenge for us as a television production company is how do we produce that? But we’re open to working with the people who know how to do it,” he said. Beale is also excited about the ability to get swift data on how all this content performs online, and iterate accordingly.
Makopa talked about a current area of focus for his company: multi-brand collaborations, where content (or potentially even an entire channel) features and is funded by several brands rather than just one.
“I know there’s brands that really want to be on that digital platform but may not have the budgets to suffice what it actually costs now,” he said.
Mako Studios has been identifying “brand clusters” who want to talk to the same audience, but with different purposes and products – so there are no competitive barriers to working together. Then, the company devises formats that can suit those brands, while ensuring each one feels it has parity in terms of its positioning.
Combining budgets is key to this: Makopa noted that the cost of an entire production using multiple creators a few years ago might barely cover the fee for a single creator now.
“My wish is these cluster brands become like teams, then they have one channel that they can all be part of. It’s a much more economical way,” he said. And where multiple brands have a single parent company – he cited the Debenhams Group as one example – there may be scope for collectives of that kind too.
Ford talked more about Sony Pictures’ plans, saying that the goal is “to have those long, returnable formats over time”. Initially that involves building its production team in-house. “But in the future, who knows? I’d like to think that we will start working with third-party production companies,” he said.
How will Sony Pictures judge the performance of its channels? “It depends how long you give yourself to get there… You’re not going to return in the first 12 months and that’s something you have to go into with your eyes open from the beginning,” he said.
“Once you’ve got that audience on digital platforms, you can monetise them in a lot of different ways, and that’s a very different thing for a studio that’s used to commissions [with] one funder,” added Ford. “All of the ways that creators monetise, those are going to be the ways that we make our money.”
As for ITV Studios, it is thinking about how to give some of its existing TV formats a new lease of life in the digital arena. He pointed to Inside, the Sidemen-helmed format that gives a new twist to Big Brother, as inspiration.
“We’ve got plenty of that [legacy formats] which you can have a go with. So come and knock on the door!” he encouraged the TellyCast audience and creators.
ITV Studios is also keen to see “what’s working in the digital space that we can take back to television” – whether that be formats or talent. “It can come both ways,” said Beale.
