This weekend, in an act of extreme selflessness the television industry will make the ultimate sacrifice and forego its bank holiday break to chew the fat in Edinburgh.
Unfortunately, due to incompetence in getting a hotel, I won’t be joining them this year but usually there is much to come out of it for anyone with even a vague interest in television, whether it be programming, audiences, platforms, strategy or the future of advertising revenue. But read all about it in the weekend's papers.
This year, ITV is very much in focus – the keynote speaker is Peter Fincham, newly-arrived head of programming at ITV and all eyes and ears will be on what he has to say.
But what is most impressive, given that sales-related TV executives are normally as rare as hen’s teeth at Edinburgh, is the decision by ITV’s MD, commercial and brand, Rupert Howell to attend a panel on the future of the channel.
The decision of Howell and so many of ITV’s senior management to make a show a force, rather than don their tin helmets, shows just how much ITV has changed. Beleaguered is a lazy epithet that journalists apply to ITV and it’s not entirely accurate either – despite what wide boys in the City may think, it’s certainly not a bust flush yet. It just needs some help from the government and less pressure from the BBC.
