Yeti named best multichannel indie

Welsh indie Yeti has been named multichannel production company of the year at this year's Broadcast Digital Awards.

The company has doubled its turnover to £4m in the past year and grown its core staff from two people to 14 and judges described it as “an emerging Welsh powerhouse which proves that a smaller company can punch above its weight”.

The award also reflected the impact of its breakout hit, More 4’s The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge with Sandi Toksvig. More 4 was named best factual channel at the awards and judges described Yeti’s show, its first for the channel and also its first competition format, as “a key title in More 4’s evolution”.

The Christmas special of the show delivered 1m and was More 4’s second-highest rated show of the year. It has also sold to more than 10 countries.

The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge with Sandi Toksvig Press Pack | Channel 4

Yeti also delivered its first premium feature documentary last year, Sky Arts’ Spike Milligan: the Unseen Archive, and its first true crime doc, CBS’s About My Murder.

It currently has a tender to produce a feature doc on an elite female athlete for Red Bull, development funding for a youth-skewing crime series on ITV2 and funded development for a BBC3 ob-doc series.

You can watch The Talent Manager's 'Come Work With Us' Webinar with Yeti here

Also in the running were Air TV, Fulwell 73, Lime Pictures, Strawberry Blond and Zandan.

Several of these won in other categories: Air TV’s Bangers and Cash was named gamechanger programme of the year; Lime Pictures picked up best digital support for a programme for the second consecutive year, for a Hollyoaks VR immersive experience that put viewers in the shoes of a woman walking home alone at night; and Zandan’s Kingpin Cribs: Drugs, Death and Pet Tigers, made for Channel 4’s YouTube channel, won best short-form documentary.

Other winners

Best documentary went to Collective Media Group for its 90-minute ITVBe doc The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash (pictured below), while Candour Productions scored best true crime documentary for its Sky Documentaries film Libby, Are You Home Yet?.

Collective Media Group scores ITV commissions brace | News | Broadcast

UKTV channel Dave was crowned channel of the year, while Boom’s returning series Big Zuu’s Big Eats named best popular factual programme.

Apple TV+ won its first award at the event, picking up best specialist factual programme for BBC Studios’ Prehistoric Planet.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s short-form online Channel 4.0 was named best entertainment channel, with Goat Films’ Nella Rose’s Flight Mode – one of its launch titles -winning best short-form documentary.

Winners in full:

Channel of the Year: Dave

Multichannel Production Company of the Year: Yeti

Gamechanger Programme of the Year: Bangers and Cash (Air TV)

Best Entertainment Channel: Channel 4.0

Best Factual Channel: More 4

Best Drama Programme: I Hate Suzie Too (Bad Wolf)

Best Documentary Programme: The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash (Collective Media Group)

Best Entertainment Programme: Don’t Hate The Playaz (Monkey Kingdom)

Best Comedy Programme: Extraordinary (Sid Gentle)

Best Specialist Channel: History Hit

Best True Crime Documentary: Libby, Are You Home Yet? (Candour Productions)