Overview
- The TV Foundation awarded next year’s festival to Manchester, making the most recent edition the final one held in Edinburgh and ending a 50-year run in the city.
- Screen Scotland has announced plans to build a new industry festival in Edinburgh to try to preserve the city’s role as a discovery hub that sits alongside the Fringe.
- Many attendees expressed disappointment while industry leaders raised practical concerns about when a Manchester festival will sit in the crowded TV calendar and how it will replicate Edinburgh’s Fringe connections.
- Conversations at the festival highlighted a split in commissioning: global streamers signalled active local commissioning while several UK public service broadcasters described slower commissioning and tighter budgets during leadership transitions.
- Contributor welfare remained a live issue with broadcasters saying duty-of-care processes are central to commissioning decisions and producers warning higher costs and the venue change will affect where and how talent and indie companies work and meet.