Channel 4’s Greatest Snowman subject of IP dispute

Format creator Tim Shaw has claimed Channel 4’s forthcoming entertainment special The Greatest Snowman bears “uncanny similarities” to an idea he pitched in 2019 - though the broadcaster has rejected the idea of any wrongdoing. 

Director of commissioning operations Emma Hardy assessed Shaw’s claims after his identically-titled idea was put into paid development two years ago.

Shaw’s concerns are understood to be focused on C4 rather than South Shore, which is responsible for the show that will TX this Christmas.

He wrote to the broadcaster last month, after the South Shore commission emerged, and received a response from chief content officer Ian Katz, who sought to provide assurance that there had been “no piggy-backing or borrowing from the work you did in 2019”.

Katz cited the fact that Shaw’s project, which was pitched with then Nerd TV co-founder John Farrar and put into paid development alongside its Red Arrow Studios stablemate CPL Productions, had been developed via C4’s formats and features department, while South Shore’s was worked up through entertainment.

Katz added that South Shore’s proposals were “significantly cheaper” than the 2019 pitch and that the broadcaster is very respectful of IP ownership.

In a further statement, a a C4 spokeswoman said: “We are respectful of the IP of production companies and the ideas they bring. This is not an uncommon idea for a Christmas programme and following a review we are satisfied that these distinct ideas in the same area were brought to different teams at different times and developed separately.”

Shaw told Broadcast that he considered Katz’s response to be unsatisfactory and is seeking a credit on South Shore’s production.

“I asked [C4] to carry out a full-scale investigation into precisely why an idea for a new television show that we developed for [it] in 2019, and didn’t get made, is now being made by a completely different production company; and the similarities between the two are uncanny,” he said.

Shaw added that broadcasters should operate systems to ensure similar ideas do not get re-pitched by different suppliers and commissioned.

“Considering the lost opportunity we’ve encountered, we want to know how C4 is planning to rectify it,” he said.

“This was about a break for Nerd and my company Boring Media: small production companies to get an opportunity to create a TV programme. Now we’ve experienced a loss of a format credit, loss of earnings and loss of an international format.”