Against considerable odds, Studio 163 have recently achieved 2 successful outcomes from meetings with commissioning editors at Channel 5 and the BBC. Both channels have asked Studio 163, a Bradford-based video production company and bmedia member, to take their initial proposals and develop these further with a view to commissioning pilot programmes later on this year.

The meetings came about after several mentoring sessions with Acunity, delivered as part of the business development programme run by Andy Duley at Think Business. Acunity was able to help the co-founders of Studio 163, Stuart Howe and Gary Palmer, to develop and shape their ideas and advise them on tactics that would enable them to secure meetings with commissioning editors.

Simon Atherley of Acunity said "Stuart and Gary have done exceptionally well. For a small, regional start-up to get this far in a fiercely competitive commissioning environment is excellent and a great success story for Bradford. The success they have achieved also shows how effective partnership programmes between Acunity and organisations such as Think Business can be.

Gary Palmer said "It has been a massive success for us to get this far with our proposals for 2 new television programmes. The odds were against us because we are very new and regional to boot, so we were delighted when we were invited both by Channel 5 and the BCC to present our proposals in London.

"When both commissioning editors then offered us initial development money to progress with our ideas, we were amazed, because we know how rare an opportunity this is for a company such as our own. Of course, we’ll be working really hard with Acunity over the coming weeks to finalise our proposals to ensure that they are both commissioned.

For further infromation about Acunity mentoring, please contact Simon Atherley on 01274 429186.