Hardly a week seems to go by at the moment without someone in the industry commenting on Sky's huge commitment to spend £600m a year on original British programmes by 2014.

And as the fastest growing source of investment in original British production, we’re committed to growing our capability to do even more on screen. It's really exciting being in the middle of this push, not only for me and the channel teams, but for colleagues elsewhere in Sky, talent and our fellow content partners.

As with other broadcasters, we at Sky need to have the right building blocks in place to help deliver what our customers expect from us. Much like our recent move into international distribution, this is just part of us growing and evolving as a content business.

But while we’ve received some brilliant pitches from indies in comedy and drama, as I hope people see on screen already, we’ve actually found it harder to get really distinctive ideas in entertainment and factual entertainment.

So we've decided to set up an in-house development team. They're focusing on these two genres, and under the guidance of the gifted and scrabble-winningly named Gigi Eligoloff (whose credits include Big Brother and The Big Breakfast) we think we are already onto something.

We announced the development last week - a big and ambitious project called THE STREET. It's early days and these things take time to develop, but we are feeling optimistic. Like the established terrestrials, Sky is moving to have a more mixed-ecology where we can develop ideas from within as well as continuing to tap into the creative brilliance of the independent sector.

It's at its very early stages, and as yet we’ve only green-lit this one project, but this is unambiguously a constructive move, and demonstrates our growing commitment to UK production. It will benefit camera crews, producers, researchers and the wider freelance base.

But I thought it was worth dispelling some worries. To be clear, although this provides us with a fresh option, it’s never going to lead to us diluting the great and fruitful relationships we’ve forged with the indie community. Indies will continue to provide the vast majority of our shows. We love working with them and, from feedback, it's clear indies really welcome the fact that we are investing heavily in this area.

So alongside the 110 indies we worked with in the last year, having an in-house option provides us with more choices, more flexibility, and means we can think about how best to achieve our ambitious content plans.

As we move forward, the only certainty is that we will demand, pursue and invest behind the best ideas and the best people. We have no quotas, we have no arbitrary targets. We simply want to work with the best. And we all remain passionate about maintaining a strong wide pool of indie suppliers.

So to be clear, in-house ideas won't be favoured over those from the indie community. First and foremost we want the best shows, so good ideas will win out, no matter where they come from.

And people who’ve worked with Sky before will know that we can't, don't and won't compromise on quality.