CBC targets online stars

Canadian pubcaster CBC has set up a comedy workshop with the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) designed to bring local YouTube stars and online creators to television.

The Jumping Screens Comedy Workshop is due to begin in January and will see up to four creative teams work with CFC to develop 10 five-minute sketches or webisodes that will be made available online.

The workshop will run over the course of five months, offering creative, business and production mentorship services, with the aim of being able to select at least one of the properties for development on CBC Television.

“As new talent, distribution platforms and content creation models continue to emerge and mature, CBC is eager to branch out and experiment with groundbreaking programmes like this, and comedy is a natural fit,” said Michelle Daly, senior director of comedy at CBC.