Edinburgh International Television Festival

The Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival powered by YouTube is one of the most prestigious media events in the UK – bringing together all parts of the television and digital world to celebrate the creativity, diversity and inspirational talent in our field, and to debate the major issues facing the industry. The Festival draws around 2000 delegates from the major networks and production companies internationally.

The Festival has attracted some of the world’s most influential, powerful and exciting industry players to take part in the Festival – including Kevin Spacey, Al Gore, Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, Ricky Gervais, Vince Gilligan, Germaine Greer, Tessa Ross, Jamie Oliver, Simon Cowell, Ted Sarandos and Elisabeth Murdoch.

Established in 1976 it is still the only event both run by and for the television industry as the Festival is governed by its Executive and Advisory committees. The Festival is a charitable organisation with a mission to identify and nurture the next generation of talent, whatever their background.

The Festival run two talent schemes – "The Network" (formerly known as TVYP) which gives brand new entrants a vital first step into the TV and digital industries while "Ones to Watch" (formerly known as Fast Track) supports those at the early stages of their career. Both benefit from fully funded places at the Festival, which include tailored workshops, masterclasses and networking. Year-round mentoring, training and events are also offered.

The Festival takes place every August at the heart of Edinburgh festival season at EICC, 150 Morrison Street, The Exchange Edinburgh, EH3 8EE.

The Festival also runs other events throughout the year with the aim of engaging and inspiring the TV industry, these range from our punchy and provocative EdTalks lectures to Q & A’s with channel bosses from across the globe.

In 2015 the Festival takes place on 26-28 August and will celebrate its 40th anniversary. The TV Festival will be more global than ever with our new US Gamechangers strand, who will join a programme bursting with agenda-setting keynotes, our Meet the Controllers sessions and a raft of screenings and masterclasses with top talent - covering everything from how TV can make money learning from digital to how producers can target and retain that desirable 16-34 audience.

Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer, director and producer Armando Iannucci will deliver this year’s prestigious James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture. The guests include some of America’s greatest game changers from cable production. ABC’s Paul Lee, A+E’s Paul Buccieri, Showtime’s David Nevins, FX’s John Landgraf, Discovery’s Rich Ross and HBO’s Michael Ellenberg will be telling us what’s next for their businesses and for the global television landscape now that the game has changed.

The ever-popular Controller Sessions will include BBC One’s Charlotte Moore, ITV’s Peter Fincham; Channel 4’s Jay Hunt, Channel 5’s Ben Frow, UKTV’s Emma Tennant, BBC Four’s Cassian Harrison, Sky One’s Adam MacDonald, ITV Digital’s Angela Jain; and the heads of BBC Two, BBC Three and Discovery Kim Shillinglaw.

The Festival is best known for its keynote address: the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture. The lecture features prescient speeches from controversial and powerful media figures that reads like a who's who of British and International TV over the last 40 years:

Year	Speaker	Job title*
1976	John McGrath	Playwright, Director and Founder of 7:84 Theatre Company
1977	Marcel Ophuls	Oscar and BAFTA Winning Director
1978	Norman Lear	Emmy Winning Producer and Writer
1979	Jeremy Isaacs	Chief Executive, Channel 4, Bafta and Emmy winning producer
1980	John Mortimer	Screenwriter and Author
1981	Peter Jay	Economist, Broadcast and Chairman of TV-am
1982	Ted Turner	Founder, CNN
1983	Jonathan Miller	Stage Director, Writer and Broadcast
1984	Denis Forman	Chairman, Granada Television
1985	John Schlesinger	Oscar and Bafta Winning Director
1986	Troy Kennedy Martin	Writer
1987	Phillip Whitehead	Documentary Producer
1988	Christine Ockrent	Journalist and Broadcaster
1989	Rupert Murdoch	Chief Executive Officer
1990	Verity Lambert	Independent Film and Television Producer
1991	David Elstein	Director of Programmes, Thames Television
1992	Michael Grade	Chief Executive, Channel 4
1993	Dennis Potter	Playwright and Director
1994	Greg Dyke	Director General, BBC
1995	Janet Street-Porter	Media Personality, Journalist and Broadcaster
1996	John Birt	Director General, BBC
1997	Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran	Writers
1998	Peter Bazalgette	Managing Director, Bazal
1999	Richard Eyre	Chief Executive, ITV Network
2000	Greg Dyke	Director General, BBC
2001	David Liddiment	Director of Channels, ITV Network
2002	Mark Thompson	Chief Executive, Channel 4
2003	Tony Ball	Chief Executive, BSkyB
2004	John Humphrys	Author, Journalist and Presenter of Television and Radio
2005	Lord Birt	Director General, BBC
2006	Charles Allen	Chief Executive, ITV
2007	Jeremy Paxman	Broadcaster, Newsnight, BBC
2008	Peter Fincham	Director of Television, ITV
2009	James Murdoch	Chairman and Chief Executive, Europe and Asia, News Corporation
2010	Mark Thompson	Director General, BBC
2011	Dr Eric Schmidt	Executive Chairman, Google
2012	Elisabeth Murdoch	Chairman, Shine Group
2013	Kevin Spacey	Academy Award winning Actor, Director & Producer
2014	David Abraham	Chief Executive, Channel 4
2015	Armando Iannucci	Oscar and Emmy nominated Writer, Director and Producer

• All job titles correct when lecture was given.

See also

• List of television festivals

External links

• Edinburgh International Television Festival Official Site.
• Media Guardian: Who was James MacTaggart?
• Media Guardian: The Foresight Sagas, 10 of the best Mactaggart Lectures - Owen Gibson
• IMDB entry for James MacTaggart