RTÉ One’s new series Whose Holiday Is It Anyway? won the best European TV format at the prestigious Eurovision Creative Days Forum yesterday in Berlin. The format, which was developed by RTÉ and Coco Television, hands teenagers responsibility for organising their family’s annual holiday. It first broadcast as a pilot last December and has now been developed into a full TV series and is expected on air later this year.
The series was up against more than 50 submissions from members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
This year’s three winners are:
- RTÉ, Ireland, ‘Whose Holiday is it Anyway?’ Produced by Coco TV. A Sunday night series targeting general audiences whereby teens take over the responsibility of planning their family’s annual holiday.
- Channel 4, UK, ‘Secret lives of Students/Teens’ presented by Mike Beale, director of international formats (ITV Studios) Students share their digital lives using texts, picture messages, calls and web searches.
- VRT één, Belgium for ‘Work it out’ presented by Koen Lievens, editor in chief (Alaska TV) A reality series that sees four young, chronically unemployed men adopt creative approaches to finding employment.
For the first time, this year’s forum also awarded funding to develop new formats and RTÉ was awarded €25,000 to develop a new format Total Recallers, a family variety game show reliant on memory. The format has been developed in-house by Grainne Ahern and a small development team and presented by Grainne McAleer, Genre Head Daytime and Lifestyle and Sarah Ryder, Commissioning Editor Arts.
Speaking about the awards Grainne McAleer, Genre Head Daytime and Lifestyle, RTÉ said: This is a huge achievement for RTÉ and Coco Television. Whose Holiday Was It Anyway? was up against some of the best formats from across Europe so we’re delighted it has came first. It once again proves that the key to developing successful formats is ensuring that they succeed for your home audience first. If it works for Irish audiences then it should translate well for other audiences.”
While Linda Cullen, Executive Producer, Coco TV, said: “I am absolutely thrilled with this award. It’s a tribute to a simple but clever idea, and a super team here at Coco who have developed it into a great series. And thanks too of course to the foresight of RTÉ and DRG who co funded the pilot programme as part of Format Farm which meant we could really interrogate a full episode, and have it tested on air, before going to full series”
Whose Holiday Is It Anyway? was developed by RTÉ Global’s Format Farm initiative which was set up in 2012 with the Irish independent production sector to develop and pilot original TV formats. To date it has attracted some of the world’s biggest production and distribution companies including Warner Bros., Fremantle Media and Sony to partner with RTÉ to co-finance, launch and provide a global platform for home-grown Irish creativity. Format Farms international sales include The Takeover (UK), Date with Fate (Ukraine), The Hit (Spain), and Away with a Stranger (Travel Channel,USA.)
Michelle Spillane, Director of RTÉ Global, commented: “Winning such a prestigious award is fantastic news for RTÉ and a further demonstration of the great passion within RTÉ for finding the best stories and ideas and bringing them to screen. RTE Television is a world class creative hub, that has enjoyed great success with a number of formats in 2014, and we are very excited to showcase the very best of our new Irish formats and programming at the upcoming MIPCOM International TV market next month.”
Other Format Farm formats that have been developed for Irish Television this season include RTÉ2’s Exiles: Vancouver a 6-part series which follows six young Irish people as they emigrate from Ireland to Canada to start a new life and chase their dream. The Unemployables devised Coco TV and presenters Jennifer Maguire and Darren Kennedy, the series sets out to try and help struggling young people get off the dole and on to a career path.
For more information on the EBU Eurovision Creative Forum go to: http://www3.ebu.ch/contents/news/2014/09/creative-excellence-recognised-b.html
Contact: Tara O’Brien, Communications Manager, RTÉ Television, tara.obrien@rte.ie, 2082287,0863544481
Date: 17 September, 2014
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