Background

Like many good partnerships, Media Sandbox began life in a bar, with a discussion on how to bring together the best of Watershed and HP Labs' SE3D and South West Screen’s Alliances projects. Now on completion of it’s third year, Media Sandbox has so far supported 19 companies to make time, take risks and develop inspirational ideas.

Due to a perceived risk or lack of track record, a key friction in the UK media market is the difficulty for smaller producers to secure new commissions. Media Sandbox was set-up to bridge this gap, giving small, agile producers an opportunity to develop early stage ideas.

From the outset, a clear structure was built into the scheme with an emphasis on community. Participants are therefore not isolated entrepreneurs struggling to express ideas – they are part of a network of content producers, clients and commissioners; and share knowledge as widely as possible through physical events, blogs and social media. Two successful years have proven that this access to peer support, industry expertise and market intelligence is invaluable.

Media Sandbox also reassures entrepreneurial companies that what they do is valuable, that their ideas and innovations matter, and that we as a nation are concerned to help them grow to a point that they can survive in the market place.

We're thrilled that Media Sandbox has now completed it's third year and would like to thank South West Screen, the South West Regional Development Agency and Watershed for their continued support. We'd also like to thank our brilliant panel of Industry Advisors whose support, advice and expertise is invaluable.