MGEITF 2010: What was said in Edinburgh that might affect YOU…

Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt believes the whole TV advertising market may need reviewing, and is firmly of the opinion that CRR should go, as ITV is “no longer a major broadcaster in financial terms, and competes in a wider market than it used to.”

Hunt is going to give Vince Cable the hot potato of News Corp/Sky to deal with, but no commentator in Edinburgh felt that in reality it was likely that this deal would not happen (unless for reasons of valuation)… although many felt strongly that it should not be allowed.

The BBC executive, frustrated by slow digital progress, may yet make more significant proposals for cuts across its radio portfolio than the mooted axing of BBC 6 Music (reversed by public pressure and the BBC Trust) and Asian Radio (not reversed by either).

ITV: is investing heavily in drama for 2011; would welcome any hint of greater co-operative scheduling by the BBC (of course); its controller Peter Fincham knew nothing of auto-tuning (after the third tabloid journalist asked the same question we all wished we’d never heard of it..) and Fincham’s band, No Expectations – see picture – (also featuring the head of Endemol, Tom Hincks) entertained delegates at the Saturday party, and had also never heard of auto-tuning!

Project Canvas does offer all its commercial stakeholders the opportunity to augment advertising revenues (but certainly not replace them as Mark Thompson first said). It has a shoo-in opportunity to 10 million Freeview homes and boast quality content. However, it needs far stronger advocacy than that given by its marketing director Tim Hunt in a mystifyingly weak conference performance.

Google TV will be exciting – if you want lots of things going on your screen at the same time. And we still wait to see if anyone starts buying the sets.

The conference was not just about the BBC and Sky – as many newspapers would claim. It was about an industry that felt it delivered world-class, diverse and (often) risk-taking content, but was not getting enough recognition and that was suffering unreasonable pressure on production budgets (largely via required BBC or commercial TV cutbacks), at a time when it could instead be forging a stronger sales path abroad.

The Edinburgh TV conference did perversely illustrate once again the power of the press, as Mark Thompson’s question session on the morning after the MacTaggart Lecture was led by comments made in that morning’s newspapers – bizarrely not by what he had actually said the night before. Ask Tess Alps at Thinkbox how frustrating that was!