Manchester companies are being offered the chance to bid for four ring-fenced BBC contracts to produce interactive content for children as part of a pilot scheme called @North.
Posting at the Media City LinkedIn group, Lynsey Taylor TV Executive at Northwest Vision and Media, said the scheme had a total budget of £500,000, ring fenced for four commissions by CBBC and CBeebies.
“CBBC and CBeebies have a technology savvy audience who are hungry for new experiences. Interactivity is at the core of what the BBC offers this audience. This is why @North is such an exciting opportunity for northwest companies from TV independents and animation companies, to social media, web companies and games developers. “
The first Q&A session for people to find out more about the initiative was due to be held today in Liverpool with a Manchester event being held next Thursday as follows;
Date: Thursday 14th January 2010
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Northern Digitals at Madlabs, 36-40 Edge Street, M4 1HN
Directions: Opposite Common and behind Cup – http://madlab.org.uk/
The application pack should be available to download later this week from: www.northwestvisionandmedia.co.uk.The deadline for applications will be the 22nd January.
* Talking of jobs, it was good to see that Martin Bryant has been promoted to UK editor of The Next Web. Martin, as well as being a fellow co-founder of Manchester Social Media Cafe, is one of city’s best known bloggers and a previous Manchester Blog Awards winner. It was heartening to see his appointment featured on a mainstream news site for the city too with good coverage from HowDo here. Could 2010 be the year that the digital sector earns the attention it deserves from Manchester’s media sites? Here’s hoping.