Northwest Vision and Media, create the bigger picture
RAF Event
A Celebration of the Northwest's Production Scene with Channel 4
"Thank you for the successful and well attended
evening at the Lowry Hotel. I take this opportunity to say how
great it is to have North West Vision organising these events in
the past few months." Joe Dubruel, Managing Director, JDA
Centrescreen Ltd
North West Vision and Channel 4 hosted an informal celebration of
the Northwest's production scene on Wednesday at The Lowry
Hotel.
The evening was a networking opportunity for invited guests to meet some of the beneficiaries of our support, to share in their successes and to learn more about North West Vision and Channel 4's present and future collaborations in the areas of business development, production, talent and innovation.
The highlight of the evening was a fantastically entertaining (and mostly unprintable) speech from Channel 4's Director of Nations & Regions, Stuart Cosgrove. He said:
"Channel 4 invests more in independent television production in the Northwest - around £40m per annum - than any other part of the UK outside London. As part of our Creative Cities strategy, which is the collective name for our ambitious programme of activities throughout the regional cities of the UK, we aim to work in partnership with regional agencies to lever further funding for the independent production community.
We have an excellent relationship with North West Vision and together we have invested directly in businesses, both indigenous and inwardly investing, which we believe will help strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the sector in this area. We welcome North West Vision's entrepreneurialism in joining us in backing these dynamic and innovative companies."
The event was also a timely occasion to celebrate the success of North West Vision's Regional Attraction Fund over the past year and to look forward to the next twelve months of funding.
The Regional Attraction Fund was established with the clear and precise aim of developing the independent television sector in the Northwest region by providing financial support to both indigenous and incoming companies. This funding is backed up by the highest quality advice, mentoring and linkage.
In the space of only seven months, 24 awards have been made, of which 20 have gone to indigenous companies and 4 to companies establishing an indigenously staffed base in the region.
Nearly £600,000 has been committed to these companies - an unprecedented level of investment amongst the English regions in this sector. Already this investment is starting to bear fruit with several new commissions and over the next two years, the turnover of these Northwest-based companies is estimated to grow collectively by £25,000,000.
Chris Moll, Head of Funds at North West Vision said:
"If the first phase of the Regional Attraction Fund has been very much demand-led - responding quickly to the developmental needs of the Northwest's indies. The second phase of the Regional Attraction Fund will be increasingly informed by strategic initiatives be they with C4, BBC and ITV.
The second stage of RAF will see the fund supporting a wider range of content propositions. Recently awards have been made to an interactive TV company and two companies producing staright to DVD/broadband product."
A full list of awards from the Regional Attraction Fund to date can be downloaded below - available in Word and PDF format.
Regional Attraction Fund Awards to
Date.doc (47.50 KB)
Regional Attraction Fund Awards to
Date.pdf (26.97 KB)
