Development Deals FAQ

What is a Festival Development Award?

 

A Festival Development Award is a guaranteed option deal offered by a Festival Development Partner.

 

NYTVF Festival Development Partners provide a creative brief outlining the development objectives for projects, including pertinent goals, audience information and additional points for consideration by submitting creators. Producers and content creators are eligible for the Festival Development Awards by having their pilot named an Official Selection of the New York Television Festival’s (NYTVF) Independent Pilot Competition (IPC) or as a semi-finalist or finalist in all other Festival initiatives, including sponsored initiatives.

 


Confirmed 2015 Development Deals and Awards


    Starz Rising Talent Award

    Award: Cash Prize and Opportunity to Starz Programming and Development Executives

    Genre: Narrative Programming (comedy or drama)

    NOTES FROM Starz:

     

    Starz is partnering with the NYTVF to identify outstanding narrative storytellers and is interested in producers with comedy or drama projects across the creative spectrum.




    The Red Arrow and Left/Right Comedy Award

    Award: $10,000 grant and the opportunity to jointly develop

    Genre: Comedy

    Notes from Red Arrow and Left/Right:

     

    The New York Television Festival is partnering with Red Arrow Entertainment Group (Married at First Sight, Odyssey, Bosch, and Lilyhammer) and its subsidiary, Left/Right (Odd Mom Out and the upcoming donny!), to recognize and honor the next independent and original voice of television comedy. NYTVF, Red Arrow and Left/Right will award at least one winning entrant from this year’s festival a grant of $10,000 and the opportunity to jointly develop his or her idea for television. Criteria include originality of comedic voice, ambition and scale, as well as commercial appeal. Red Arrow and Left/Right are especially interested in compelling work by writer-performers and will consider narrative/single-camera sitcoms, multi-camera sitcoms, sketch, and "late night" comedy.

     

    Projects named “Official Selections” in 2015 will be eligible for the Award. For consideration, applicants must enter a comedy project into the NYTVF's annual Independent Pilot Competition (IPC), which is now accepting independently produced television and digital pilots in all genres until June 29, 2015.

     

    About Red Arrow
    Arrow Entertainment Group incorporates global distributor Red Arrow International as well as 13 TV production companies spanning seven countries, the multi-channel network Collective Digital Studio (Los Angeles), and creative partnerships and joint ventures with STV Productions (UK), The Imaginarium Studios (UK), Sync Media (Dubai), Guan Yue International (China) and United Artists Media Group (Mark Burnett/Hearst; UK). The group’s production portfolio includes highlights like “Bosch”, “Odyssey”, “The Comedians”, “Lilyhammer”, “Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot”, “100 Code”, “Odd Mom out”, “Married at First Sight”, “Say Yes To The Dress”, “The Taste”, “Mob Wives”, “Little Women”, “Off Their Rockers” and “A League of Their Own”. Red Arrow Entertainment Group is part of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, one of Europe's leading media groups. http://www.redarrow.tv

     

    About Left/Right
    LEFT/RIGHT has produced hundreds of hours of television in an extraordinarily eclectic mix of genres ranging from hard-hitting documentaries to side-splitting docu-series, single-camera sitcoms to multi-camera melodramas, and everything in between. Past and present projects range from This American Life (Showtime), the Emmy Award-winning television adaptation of the popular public radio show…to Mob Wives (VH1), the hit series about a group of women who are married to the mob…to Small Town Security (AMC), the surreal and stranger-than-fiction comedy series about a private security business like no other. Our scripted productions include the comedies Odd Mom Out (Bravo) and Donny! (USA). The company’s documentary unit produces features and specials for networks such as PBS, History, Discovery, and many others. Our shows have been nominated for over a dozen Emmy Awards and have won multiple awards, including the Emmy for Best Nonfiction Series.  Left/Right is part of the Red Arrow Entertainment Group, an international production and distribution company.  For more information, visit www.leftright.tv.




    Comedy Central Development Deal

    Award: Development Deal

    Genre: Comedy

    NOTES FROM COMEDY CENTRAL:

     

    The New York Television Festival and Comedy Central have re-teamed to offer emerging TV writers and producers the opportunity to win a development deal with the network.

     

    Comedy Central is looking for fun, fresh points of view that fit into the network's brand of comedy. The following scripted-comedy formats would apply: sketch, narrative/single-camera sitcom, animated, and "late night" comedy (game shows, panel shows, etc.).

     

    To qualify for the Comedy Central Development Deal, independent creators must enter a comedy project into any one of the NYTVF's 2015 initiatives, including the annual Independent Pilot Competition (IPC), which is now accepting independently produced television and digital pilots in all genres through June 29. Projects named "Official Selections" in 2015 will be eligible for consideration by Comedy Central.




    truTV

    Award: Opportunity to Develop Comedy Project with truTV and NYTVF Productions

    Genre: Comedy Formats

    NOTES FROM truTV:

     

    truTV is partnering with the NYTVF to find the next generation of great comedic voices and exciting new comedy-based formats. The winner of the truTV Greenlight Award will be identified from among the Festival's 2015 Official Artists, and will develop a project in partnership with truTV and the Festival's recently-launched production arm, NYTVF Productions.

     

    For inspiration, submitters are encouraged to check out existing truTV programming including the upcoming Funny or Die's Billy on the Street from Billy Eichner and returning favorites Friends of the People, The Carbonaro Effect, and Impractical Jokers.

     

    About truTV
    truTV takes viewers on a fun ride that surprises and entertains. The network delivers a dynamic mix of action, comedy and competition, featuring engaging characters and compelling new worlds that pull you in and leave you wanting more. Currently seen in 92 million U.S. households, truTV features such popular original series as Impractical Jokers, The Carbonaro Effect, Friends of the People, Hack My Life, How to Be a Grown-Up, Barmageddon and Breaking Greenville as well as the upcoming Billy on the Street, Those Who Can't, Six Degrees of Everything, Santas in the Barn and The Hustlers. In addition, truTV is a partner in airing the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

     

    Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news; entertainment; kids and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.



See the 2014 Festival Development Awards here.

 

NYTVF Pitch

In addition Festival Development Partners, all Official Selections are shared with all NYTVF industry partners in the weeks prior to the Festival, including NYTVF Pitch Partners. No matter what you're producing – scripted, non-scripted, comedy, drama, animation or children's programming – there is a home for you and your work at the NYTVF.



Previous NYTVF Pitch Partners

Sundance Channel BIO Nat Geo H2 cne Travel Channel 4 Hasbro Studios Logo SevenOne RedArrow wetv trutv mtv gannett

 

NYTVF Pitch is a closed initiative hosted on-site at the New York Television Festival that is open ONLY to Official Festival Artists. Each Pitch Partner offers a guaranteed deal for an outstanding pitch, but you can ONLY participate if you are named an Official Selection.

 

For more information about NYTVF Pitch, click here.


For additional information about the NYTVF Artist Experience, click here.


 

 

 

 

 

The NYTVF is a pioneer of the independent television movement, connecting its community of artists with leading networks, studios, agencies, production companies, and brands.




Industry Partners

 

 

"Upon winning at the festival, we were able to secure representation and have our pilot shopped at HBO, NBC and Lionsgate television. Eventually it would be sold to Viacom. This created a number of new relationships that continue today."

Stephen Anderson, Executive Producer – Studio 6 Productions

"Winning the MSN Short-Form Storytellers challenge has allowed me to not only fully fund my web series, but jump start my web producing career while working with one of the best digital brands in the industry."

Guy Georgeson, Winner – MSN Short Form Storytellers Challenge 2013