The Sidemen's guide to creating superstar formats

Victor Bengtsson runs production at Sidemen Entertainment. In this episode, recorded at the TellyCast Digital Content Forum 2025, he explains how the company built Inside, a Big Brother-style format developed with no TV experience and no format experts in the room, and turned it into a Netflix number one. Victor takes us through Sidemen's Core Missions structure, the single-sentence pitch rule that governs every idea, and the decision to test Inside on a second YouTube channel before committing serious money. He explains why the company deliberately avoids hiring format specialists at the ideation stage, how a 30-day pre-production sprint led to 55 million views in ten days, and what happened when Netflix came calling. The conversation also covers the tension between YouTube instinct and traditional TV development, and why Victor believes reintroducing fun to the commissioning process is the industry's biggest missed opportunity. This is a candid look at how a digital-first creator business out-developed the TV industry at its own game. Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok