Friday August 28th 2026
Ross Atkins speaks at a previous Edinburgh TV Festival. The festival is moving from Edinburgh to Manchester from 2027.
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Edinburgh is set to get a new global media and creative industries event after the city’s long-running TV Festival announced it is moving to Manchester.
Culture Secretary Màiri McAllan announced the new initiative on Thursday, which will form part of Edinburgh’s August festivals and aim to connect the city’s creative talent with international media industries and audiences.
The announcement comes after the Edinburgh TV Festival confirmed it will leave the capital and relocate to Manchester, ending its long association with Edinburgh.
Rather than recreate the TV Festival, the new initiative will seek to build on Edinburgh’s wider August festivals and the increasingly blurred boundaries between television, film, theatre, publishing and other creative industries.
The event will use Edinburgh’s position as an international showcase for emerging talent and creative ideas to help connect creators and new intellectual property with broadcasters, streaming platforms and commissioners from around the world.
‘Baby Reindeer’ and ‘Half Man’ creator and star Richard Gadd attended the launch and spoke about the importance of Edinburgh during August as a place where new talent can be discovered, ambitious work can be showcased and careers can develop.
Initial development work was funded by Screen Scotland and completed earlier this year, looking at how Edinburgh’s August festivals could work together to create a new offer for the global content industries.
Independent consultant Rowan Woods has now been appointed to lead the next stage of development, again funded by Screen Scotland and delivered through the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
Woods will consult with the August festivals, producing venues, broadcasters, platforms, content creators, publishers and potential audiences before deciding what the new initiative will look like.
The consultation will consider its audience, dates, venues, programme and participants, with the process expected to conclude in early spring 2027.
An initial pilot is planned for August 2027.
The new event will also build on existing links between Edinburgh’s festivals and the screen industry, including Screen Fringe — a collaboration between Screen Scotland and the Fringe Society which helps hundreds of television and film executives make connections in the city each August.
Screen Fringe is expected to remain part of Edinburgh’s offer to the global screen industry.
Separately, Screen Scotland has confirmed that the Lynda Myles Debate will become a keynote part of Edinburgh’s August festivals from 2027.
The debate will honour Lynda Myles, former Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and co-creator of the Edinburgh TV Festival, and her long-standing belief in Edinburgh as a place for ambitious debate about the future of the screen and wider media industries.
Culture Secretary Màiri McAllan said the new initiative would allow Edinburgh to continue its “world-leading offer” for the television industry alongside its other festivals.
She said: “We are so proud of Scotland’s screen sector and this exciting addition to the August festivals line-up will provide a new way to embrace the creativity and cultural innovation which makes our capital unique.
“As a global hotbed of emerging talent, where new voices are heard and fresh stories are told, Edinburgh will continue its world-leading offer for the television industry with the support of the Scottish Government – and will do so alongside our other Edinburgh festivals, showcasing brilliance across artforms.”
David Smith, Director of Screen Scotland, said Edinburgh had a “unique role to play” in bringing together people, ideas and creative work shaping the future of the screen and wider creative industries.
He said: “Every August, the city becomes a remarkable meeting place for talent from around the world, alongside audiences, producers, commissioners, artists and creative thinkers.
“We have an opportunity to build on that extraordinary concentration of talent and energy and create something new, ambitious and genuinely distinctive for the global industry.”
Tony Lankester, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said the August festivals provided an “unparalleled environment” for discovering new talent, ideas and creative work.
He said the new initiative provided an opportunity to “think afresh” about how Edinburgh could serve the global screen and creative industries during August.
On the announcement of the Lynda Myles Debate, Lynda Myles said she was “deeply touched and honoured” to have it named after her.
She added that recognising the importance of ideas and discussion was particularly significant given that this was the original intention behind the creation of the Edinburgh Television Festival in 1976.
The Scottish Government is providing funding for development of the new initiative through Screen Scotland, with further details expected to be announced in 2027.
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