{"id":365701,"date":"2025-08-22T22:14:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365701\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T22:14:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:14:23","slug":"edinburgh-tv-festival-takeaways-adolescence-donald-trump-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365701\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh TV Festival Takeaways: ‘Adolescence’, Donald Trump, YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Edinburgh<\/a> TV Festival turned 50 this year and it\u2019s been a ride. After a distinctly doomy 2024, characterized by warnings around the \u201csqueezed middle,\u201d<\/a> 2025 felt like something of a return to the fest\u2019s creative roots, alongside a few sessions that got just that little bit spicy. There was also a sprinkling of glamor in the form of Shonda Rhimes and Tina Fey. Read on for Deadline\u2019s key takeaways.<\/p>\n

\n\tChannel 4 & Netflix Serve Up \u2018Adolescence\u2019\u2013Themed Spice<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBBC News presenter Ros Atkins leads opening debate. Image: Edinburgh TV Festival<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSometimes an executive utters a line on stage that defines the year\u2019s proceedings. During the festival\u2019s opening debate, Channel 4 news chief Louisa Compton accused Netflix of<\/a> behaving like \u201cTV tourists\u201d by commissioning breakout hit Adolescence, a show created by talent that Channel 4 had been honing for years. The \u201coohs\u201d in the audience were audible, as was moderator Ros Atkins\u2019 nod to journalists: \u201cWell, there\u2019s your headline.\u201d Compton described Channel 4 as \u201cproud parents\u201d of Adolescence due to the network\u2019s long-standing relationship with co-creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham. The shot had been fired and was part of a wider argument Channel 4 wanted to build around the obligations \u2013 or lack of \u2013 that streamers have towards British content. <\/p>\n

\n\tLater that day, Channel 4 content chief Ian Katz clarified Compton\u2019s remarks<\/a> by noting that streamers are \u201chappy to take advantage of an incredibly rich global ecosystem that has been built up through years and years of broadcasters investing in talent.\u201d Katz also found time to call out Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery for foregoing their annual Spotlight Sessions. Instead, Netflix UK chief Anne Mensah spoke to delegates during a session that was curiously closed to press. Quite why Netflix wanted to resist reporters is not clear, particularly when you consider that Mensah has a stellar story to tell about a string of hit series.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe streamer did have an opportunity to respond to the \u201cTV tourist\u201d barb, however, during an Adolescence masterclass. Scripted exec Mona Qureshi stressed her \u201cconsternation<\/a>,\u201d as she fired: \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m a tourist \u2014 I\u2019ve been around.\u201d Another senior streamer drama executive privately observed that Channel 4 should spend less time claiming credit for Adolescence and more time nurturing the next Jack Thorne. This person noted that there was dissonance between Channel 4\u2019s rhetoric and the splashy series announced by the network at Edinburgh: Army Of Shadows and Number 10, respectively penned by established writers Ronan Bennett and Steven Moffat.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis debate is not a new one, but there is clearly frustration from the broadcasters, many of whom have privately noted in past months that they simply couldn\u2019t have afforded the one-shot masterclass Adolescence, in part due to the fact that streamers have entered the market in recent years and pushed up prices. It all made for some good old-fashioned healthy debate, a return to the Edinburgh days of yore when such rows were par for the course.<\/p>\n

\n\tCan\u2019t escape Donald Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tTrump 2.0 loomed large. Edinburgh had a distinctly transatlantic feel this year and frustrated creatives weren\u2019t holding back following a string of Trump-related incidents that have hit the entertainment sector in recent times. Accepting the inaugural Edinburgh fellowship, Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes claimed there are genuine jitters<\/a> in the U.S. that network storytelling is being self-censored during the POTUS\u2019 second term in office, as she delved into why she quit the Kennedy Center\u2019s board in February after Trump appointed himself as chairman. In an intriguing session about Trump and the media, stand-up comic Roy Wood Jr. explained what it is like working in this febrile environment<\/a> and said backlash may come soon in the shape of stars like Stephen Colbert, who is losing his long-running late-night CBS show and could instead set himself up as a leading anti-Trump voice on YouTube. Given the shadow of Trump, and the surge of the populist Reform party in the UK, it\u2019s a surprise there were not more conservative voices at the festival (former The Spectator journalist Katy Balls was one of the few in town) \u2014 or at least more talk about how some viewers feel disenfranchised by traditional media and are turning to platforms like GB News. Should TV\u2019s liberal executives be grappling with these forces and talking about them more openly?<\/p>\n

\n\tYouTube: here to stay<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Munya<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMunya Chawawa<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEdinburgh Television Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tA Thursday afternoon debate apocalyptically titled \u2018YouTube: The Future Or The End of TV As We Know It?\u2019 was standing room only, and many punters couldn\u2019t even get in. Leveraging the power of the Google-owned platform felt almost an obsession from traditional telly folk this year and it dominated conversation as broadcasters and super-indies alike look to take advantage of top YouTube talent and utilize the platform far more effectively. In stepped Munya Chawawa, who delivered a fired-up Alternative MacTaggart <\/a>in which the creative whose stardom emerged from lockdown virality blasted British TV gatekeepers for \u201cignoring evolution\u201d and urged them to work closer with the growing flock of digital creatives. One VIP taking note was The Traitors super-producer Stephen Lambert, who this morning revealed his indie is working on shows for YouTube<\/a> for the first time. Industry sources we spoke with in between sessions were intrigued yet sceptical, pointing out that broadcasters\u2019 slice of the YouTube pie is still tiny and that the debate around leveraging the power of digital talent has been going on for years. But whatever the situation, a platform which is now the second most-watched in the UK (behind only the BBC) is clearly going to need considerably more attention as the years roll on. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u2018Fewer, bigger, better\u2019 shows<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThere were notably fewer programme announcements at this year\u2019s Edinburgh \u2013 usually used by PRs as a chance to unveil a feast of new shows \u2013 but when they were announced, they came with heft, reflecting the \u2018fewer, bigger, better\u2019 mantra that has subsumed all the big players over the past couple of years. They are greenlighting less, but when they greenlight, they commit. Leading the charge was new HBO-Sky co-pro War<\/a>, a legal thriller starring Dominic West and Sienna Miller that has, intriguingly, been greenlit with a two-season order. Channel 4 unveiled the a duo of weighty new dramas from Moffat and The Day of the Jackal showrunner Ronan Bennett, the latter being a reimagining of 1969 movie Army of Shadows set in a near-future authoritarian Britain co-produced with Canal+. ITV, meanwhile, took its own punt at replicating the success of The Traitors with Nobody\u2019s Fool, a guessing game-style show fronted by Rivals pair Danny Dyer and Emily Atack. The BBC was content with building buzz for The Celebrity Traitors<\/a>, which drew one of the biggest rounds of applause of the fest when its release date was announced.<\/p>\n

\n\tEdinburgh back to its creative best<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tImage: Edinburgh TV Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tEdinburgh needed a shot of creativity and positive energy after last year\u2019s doomfest and there was a concerted effort to make this happen, even if things felt a smidgeon quieter footfall-wise. Vibes were uplifted and attendees communicated a distinct sense that we have now entered a \u201cnew normal\u201d and there is no point spending too much time harking back to days of yore. This likely led to the fever pitch around YouTube and gave a dose of energy around what really matters, the content, with masterclasses on Big Brother, Adolescence, Rivals and Last One Laughing UK all well attended. There is no point pretending things aren\u2019t tough (a Bectu survey published in the past few hours <\/a>found nearly half of the TV workforce are out of work) but there is definitely a more coherent approach to making things work in the industry and Edinburgh reflected this. Landing the likes of Rhimes and Fey helped a great deal, and the fest\u2019s organizers will be hoping they can replicate this in 2026 without the pulling power of this year\u2019s chair Jane Tranter, the Doctor Who executive whose contacts book is likely stuffed full of top transatlantic talent and who, by all accounts, worked her absolute socks off. MacTaggart lecturer James Harding\u2019s call for a BBC free of political interference<\/a> felt like a good jumping-off point for what will likely dominate next year as the corporation\u2019s charter renewal nears. This festival matters, and the great-and-good of the British TV industry still understand that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edinburgh TV Festival turned 50 this year and it\u2019s been a ride. After a distinctly doomy 2024,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,102997,4884,712,78521,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-365701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-edinburgh-tv-festival","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-tv-markets","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115074725602954423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}