Mark Bowness made a name for himself when his tribewanted online community project attracted the attention of the world’s media.

The BBC produced a five-part documentary about the setting up of an online global network which directs an eco-community on a Fijian island, Paradise or Bust, and the public response to it gave Bowness the idea for his new endeavour - thenerve.tv.

“As these e-mails came in my thought process was: ‘There are people here who have fantastic ideas and one of them will have the idea for the next big TV show’,” he says.

With thenerve.tv, Bowness is hoping to create the world's first crowd-sourced TV production company. He is currently hunting for TV channels bold enough to take the ideas generated and turn them into TV programmes.

Members, who pay a £60 annual subscription, have the opportunity to develop their creativity and ideas through online forums, regional seminars and hands-on training, while Bowness and his expert team will pitch the submitted ideas to TV channels.

“This idea is the hunt for the next big TV show. I will be in the UK, the US, Australia and other places around the world, and people can pitch their ideas to me. I aim to get ten ideas to pitch to programme commissioners in the US and the UK to see which TV company has the nerve to take a member of the public’s idea and turn it into the next big TV show,” Bowness says.

Should one of the ideas from the already 900-strong membership get taken up by a broadcaster, then the profits will be split 50/50 between thenerve.tv and the creator.

“We are getting different types of people joining, those who are already creating videos and putting them on YouTube, actors and artists, people who want to get involved with production and those who are interested in creating music, and there’s great scope for a TV show in that,” Bowness says.

To add some extra glitz, Bowness purchased a satellite TV station in New Zealand last week, so now thenerve.tv can actually deliver on taking the public’s programme ideas and making them a reality for a select audience.

Buying the station has also allowed Bowness to offer the members one week’s hands-on training in New Zealand or at the channel’s London or New York offices each year, with the option to buy further weeks, and the chance to work on programmes that will be broadcast to a potential audience of 25 million people.

“I just know that there are loads of people that sit watching TV and think: ‘You know what. That’s rubbish.’ People are creative, but they have no idea what to do with their creativity,” he says.

“There will be people who have already thought of TV programme ideas and still others who hear about this and think ‘I bet I could.’ Before they’ve never been able to take it anywhere, but now they can and that’s something I’m really passionate about.”

Development of talent is key to the project and Bowness is keen to get industry experts, successful programme makers and entrepreneurs to add inspiration and motivation to the regional day seminars that will be held across the country.

Kyle McDonald, who famously traded up One Red Paperclip for a house in Canada in less than a year of online bartering, has been lined up as a headline speaker at a special two-day seminar in London in August, while Bowness is in discussions with other media professionals to present at other events nationwide.

The seminars will supplement the weekly online training sessions, which will provide information and insights into creating ideas and what it takes to develop them, and will form part of a downloadable reference library for all members. www.thenerve.tv

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