Digital Spy's Joanne Oatts attended the Broadcast Commissioning Conference in Manchester this week to find out how the commissioning process works and talked to Sky about its new commissioning strategy.

Two key concepts were on the agenda at this year's conference: multi-platform and where to find new ideas.

BBC director of television Jana Bennett started the ball rolling by announcing the extra funding the BBC is putting into creating "multi-platform", also known as 360-commissioning. The move towards more content on mobile and the web is at the forefront of the BBC's strategy for the next few years. Bennett gave the example of the Danny Wallace programme How To Build Your Own Country as the sort of show we're going to see more of from the BBC, and eventually from all the broadcasters. That series grew its own audience on the web, long before the BBC Two programme aired, and then continued with an online life well after the TV show had finished.

Pretty much everyone was in agreement that to succeed in the multi-channel, fragmented market, with declining advertising revenues, they now have to attract viewers in different ways than from just watching TV on a set. But there also seemed to be a consensus that there's little point encouraging people to watch clips on their mobile or whole shows on the web if the content is boring and all too similar. Danny Cohen, head of E4 and head of Channel 4 factual entertainment, said what the industry needed was new ideas, as he felt the same type of shows were being produced across the board. "There needs to be a creative regeneration, we're all looking for the 'new' hits. It's harder than ever to make big hits," he said, "We need a creative power-surge."

"The most interesting thing in talking to the factual entertainment team was what the mums at school had said about television, that there was too much celeb-based stuff, format shows were predictable, or it was all people 'telling you what to do'. We have to break out of the patterns we've got used to," he added.

So let's go back to the beginning - how did these "great" ideas come into being? I was curious to know whether the commissioning process was the same from channel to channel. Hannah Barnes, managing editor of Sky One, Two and Three, and previously deputy channel controller at Livingtv and Ftn, gave an affirmation. "Production companies will send through ideas to one of our commissioning editors, or go through the website and put proposals through. There are also a number of production companies that come to myself and Richard (Woolfe, director of programmes for Sky One, Two and Three) directly, either because they have a relationship with us, or they've got a very, very good idea. We meet with the commissioning editors weekly and they come with a whole list of ideas that they'll talk to Richard and I about, and we'll talk through each of them between us and decide which ones we're going to investigate further."

That seems pretty straightforward. So does Sky ever come up with the ideas themselves? "Sometimes we'll come up with an idea ourselves and go and develop it with a production company. But Richard and I are very keen on finding new ways to develop creative ideas, so we're looking at co-productions, we'll look at advertiser-funded programming, if we can find the right idea."

And would Sky ever consider an idea that didn't come through a production company and perhaps from a member of the public? "Yes, we would definitely," says Barnes. "But more often than not they're mad ideas that you can't see working, but yes we absolutely would."

Barnes also explains how Sky has developed its new strategy: "We've been putting together the long range strategy, and part of that is to discuss what the trends are, and what's working and what's not (in TV). I'm interested to know whether interest is waning with shows like I'm a Celebrity and X-Factor - I know personally I'm not watching them any more - but we were surprised to see interest in those shows declining."

Explaining said new strategy, Richard Woolfe spoke about the multi-million pound acquisition of US show Lost. The thinking behind it was to bring a new set of viewers to the channel and reward them with an equivalent quality of commissioned shows. "The benefit is it bring a new audience to the channel, and with this front of mind, it gives our original commissions time to bare fruit," he said. Of its output, Sky is now spending 60% of its budget on original content, compared to 43% in 2003. Woolfe said he wanted to encourage production companies to consider Sky the "first port of call for ideas for shows that would sit as well on the any of the terrestrial channels."

Such an idea is Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, a multi-million pound commission for December, with an ensemble cast that includes Sir David Jason, Nigel Planer and Ian Richardson, as the voice of 'Death'. Having also bought the rights to produce the next three Pratchett novels, Woolfe said it was an example of the "big, ambitious commissions" that Sky wanted to continue with. But he agreed with his fellow speakers' views about the key being content and not putting all your eggs in the multi-platform basket. "360 is about original content," he said. "Get this wrong and the viewers will do an 180-degrees turn."

On the terrestrial side, the BBC is also talking up its "landmark" (another "phrase du jour" of the conference), commissioning strategy and said it was something the BBC searching for more of. For entertainment, Peter Fincham, controller of BBC One, said Saturday is still the key night - "what defines a season is the big Saturday night shows" - but it was hard to find the big important programmes like Strictly Come Dancing. The BBC also continues to search for its elusive "family sitcom" to follow the success of My Family. "When you get it right," said Fincham, "it does something for your schedule that's a different thing altogether."

Next month, continuing our look into the world of commissioning, DS talks to the channel's heads of comedy in the run up to the British Comedy Awards 2006 on December 13.