Industry gossip was on the menu at FRC HQ on Monday morning as the team returned from the Royal Television Society’s flagship Cambridge Convention. The biannual event – the UK’s preeminent high-level gathering of broadcasting executives – was held across three days last week; at which we ran the event’s press office…not to mention attend a few sessions and sample the culinary delights of Kings College’s Great Hall.
Talking points were plentiful: from BBC Director General Mark Thompson’s response to suggestions it was time for BBC Worldwide to be spun off (“Erm…no”); Channel 4’s David Abraham and BSkyB’s Mike Darcy clashing on viewer data (“The new oil”); BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten’s admission that the broadcaster’s DQF commitments will see its entertainment output hit hardest; the unanimous verdict of delegates that another Communications Act was not needed (a snap poll taken after Jeremy Hunt had left the building); to Sir Martin Sorrell’s brilliant “eat your own children before someone else does” – a piece of business advice that was as cryptic as it was well-received.
The speakers were on top form and, with an eclectic and entertaining programme, we’re glad delegates and journalists alike returned home happy.