Mission
The Sandbox Hub aims to inspire and support international media organisations in collaborating with start-ups. Through this international network, Sandbox Hub members are able to set up partnerships with start-ups, help develop their innovations and scale their businesses, while introducing new technologies, ideas and insights into the media organisation and the network in general. Launched in January 2018 as part of the EU-funded MediaRoad project, running from September 2017 to October 2019, the Sandbox Hubs’ ambition is to stimulate media innovation in Europe through entrepreneurship.
Goal
The initial goal of the Sandbox Hub was to inspire 4 other media organisations to join the network by the end of 2019. Today, with more than 20 other European media organisations, this target has been more than achieved. In close cooperation with RTBF, VRT has succeeded in inspiring several other media organisations to promote innovation through entrepreneurship by joining the Sandbox Hub. As a result of this, some members have now launched their own Sandbox. In this sense, the Sandbox Hub promotes innovation in the media industry by helping media organisations to transform their model with new ideas and by contributing to the development and growth of smaller and local media organisations through collaboration with entrepreneurs.
“The Sandbox Hub has proven to be a pool of talent and ideas. Startups and media companies alike, join forces and share insights about new workflows, ideas and new concepts for media technology. DPG Media has spotted several interesting startups this way." - Jan De Wever, Project Manager Innovative Technology at DPG Media
Startups collaboration
Through so-called "accelerators" or "sandboxes", startups, SMEs and entrepreneurs are matched with one (or more) media organisations for short-term collaborations. Selected projects are given the opportunity to scale up and/or develop their products (both content and technology) for short periods, with access to the infrastructure and technological resources of the media organisation. At the end of the project, the partners showcase their learning experiences and insights at internal & external networking events.
“Through the Sandbox Hub we were able to learn a lot about how to collaborate with startups, especially as a public service company, which is not always very simple.” - Kati Bremme, Product Manager Innovation at France TV
Most of the participating accelerators are hosted by established media organisations, and welcome applications in the fields of technology, journalism, social media and content. Each Sandbox operates independently but is internationally connected through a common platform for broader implementation of successful cases. So far, over 100 local startup partnerships have been established through the Sandbox Hub and more than 20 international Sandbox Hub collaborations between members and startups have taken place, including with On-Hertz, Kiswe, Limecraft, AZilPix, Aiconix and Promomii.
“Sincerely, we had more leads than we expected. The balance is very positive. For us there were three main goals in working with the Sandbox Hub: getting feedback from one of the most innovative public organisations in Europe, opening a door to other public organisations and gaining visibility. With these two last goals in mind, it makes all the sense for us participating in these events.” - Tommy Ferraz, Founder of Voizzup
