Leader: Make room for risk

Emily Booth, Broadcast's acting editor

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Taking a risk on new formats and ideas is at the heart of TV programme success.

In her interview with Broadcast this week, BBC1 controller Jay Hunt speaks with conviction about the need to take calculated risks in television. Her one message for the production community, she explains, is that she would like people to embrace creative risk and put forward big, brave, ambitious ideas.

She notes that "we become creatively smaller when we start self-censoring and saying 'well that wouldn't work'." Occasionally, she says, "you need to jump off a cliff".

She makes an important point. (Though you might want to check the depth of the water first - or whether there are some nasty rocks on the way down.)

The notion of backing an idea and seeing it through is how the industry progresses and some of the best TV gets made. Strictly Come Dancing might have come across as a bit crazy when it was first mooted - now it's a stonking global success. Doctor Who surely sounded weird on paper when it was pitched all those years ago. And Ashes to Ashes?

As the industry gathers in Edinburgh, the natural punctuation point before the flurry of autumn scheduling kicks in, it's time to take a breath and reflect. If 2007 was a year on the ropes, things are looking creatively brighter now. As the MGEITF advisory chair Andrew Mackenzie writes in this week's Hot Topic column, this year's festival could have been themed around TV's Armageddon. Instead, it will aim to reflect not only the controversies but also the immense creativity of the past year.

There have been massive fines, resignations, and much wearing of hair shirts in recent times. And there is a sense that the industry may never be quite the same. But perhaps this is a good thing. Overall, there is more scrutiny with regard to programme-making than ever before. There's a sense now that creative and commercial success, when it's achieved in this tough new climate, is hard won and should be celebrated.

As we go to press, two interesting facts indicate the creative esteem in which the UK TV industry is held. According to a new study commissioned by Pact and conducted by research company TRP, UK programme formats have increased their dominance over the past five years, accounting for more than half of exported format hours globally.

And, of course, NBC Universal is to buy creative drama stalwart Carnival Films in its first acquisition of a UK indie. It is expected to be the first of a series of deals as the US giant sets its sights on the UK production community.

These developments, combined with Jay Hunt's creative risks battle cry, help set the scene for a challenging, but hopefully an upbeat, Edinburgh. See you there.
Emily Booth, acting editor