Barbara Lee
After more than 20 years as a producer in the indie sector, Barbara joined Sky five years ago as a Commissioning Editor working in Entertainment and Arts.
She worked with a variety of indies such as Hatrick, Tiger Aspect, Whizzkid and CPL she specialised in studio entertainment, comedy and factual programmes for all terrestrial broadcasters.
In her role as Commissioner, Barbara looks after A League of Their Own, ALOTO Roadtrip and new series Carmageddon for Sky 1. She commissions a lot of music content for Sky Arts including Brian Johnson’s A Life on The Road, Tony Visconti’s Unsigned Heroes and the documentary series Rock and Roll.
Barbara is looking to meet
Inspiring and imaginative entertainment and fact-ent producers, with original, multi-part series, formats and ideas.
Brief for delegates
At Sky 1 (our premier entertainment channel ) it’s about entertainment and factual entertainment formats of scale, with a unique and captivating central premise. As a subscription channel, our shows need to feel distinctly Sky.
The Three Areas of focus are
- Fact Ent Formats (9pm)
- Scaled Entertainment Event Programmes (to play at 9pm).
- As a broad steer for both these areas we are keen to take movie tropes and turn them into entertainment formats (eg Carmageddon took “Mad Max” as inspiration).
Of course we are also looking for something unique and unusual – something to get people talking. It’s always better if something feels like it exists in the real world and has authenticity rather than feeling forced for telly. We aren’t ruling out dating if the right format should come along.
Comedy Ents (half hours at 10pm). We’ve got an eye out for something uniquely funny and startling. We’ll always eventually ask “who’s in this though?” but for starters we’d just like to see something that makes us laugh – is unashamedly daft, immensely shareable on social and laugh out loud funny.
What We Aren’t Looking For
We aren’t looking for factual series or one-off docs – and no “authored journeys” at this stage. I’d say don’t pitch a singing show as we have one in production and one in development already.
We don’t want studio gameshows either. In general always think of making a shiny floor a bit less shiny.
In general – we can have some grit in the oyster – we want to be grown up, and have a bit more of attitude – we can be a little more male (or at least not off-putting for men).
Please be ambitious – we want a million people to be watching the shows, so if you think your idea has that potential and the potential to get people talking then we are all ears – if it sits in the middle somewhere then it won’t be for us.
At Sky Arts, our audience is 50+, culturally curious, and engaged with the broad church of arts. We commission a wide range of content; from competitive formats e.g. Portrait Artist of the Year and Masters of Photography, rock series with incredible access as well as opera and theatrical productions. We are always on the lookout for fantastic access into worlds that will appeal to our audience.
Ed Havard
