Channel 4’s 4ip project has sparked a glimmer of hope in the broadcast industry given the state of the economy at present.

Where commercial media companies are purely focused on the most secure money-generating digital projects, Channel 4 has the luxury of being able to explore potentially powerful digital businesses as well as public service projects. They have been given £20m to spend over three years which fails to compete with TV commissioning budgets but represents a substantial opportunity for a low-cost, influential and increasingly important sector brimming with creative talent.

The 4iP Fund aims to deliver publicly valuable content and services on digital media platforms with significant impact and in sustainable ways. It represents one of the biggest and most exciting calls-to-action for new and emergent digital media companies in the UK.

Tom Loosemore head of 4Ip and former head of Web 2.0 at the BBC and Ofcom digital strategy adviser has declared 4ip projects will be allowed to fail.

“We’re ‘learning by doing’. And on the internet, if you’re not failing, you’re not taking enough risks. The trick is to fail really quickly and cheaply – to fall forward, fast. We put huge emphasis on getting running code out there quickly and cheaply, with enough built-in enough flexibility to adapt to how people actually use products. And we’re not afraid to drown puppies.”

“Times are tough, but it would be remiss for a public institution with a remit for innovation to ignore seismic changes in people’s media preferences and behaviours – particularly amongst those growing up with the internet.”

4iP hopes to be fully integrated with Channel 4 by 2011, and hop that other institutions will follow suit by then.