TV promise for Fringe stars

Published on 19/08/2012 00:00

EDINBURGH Festival impresario William Burdett-Coutts has pledged to bring talent discovered in the capital to the small screen if his bid to win a new television licence in London is successful.

Burdett-Coutts – who founded one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s biggest venues, Assembly, 31 years ago – has teamed up with former Pizza Express entrepreneur and investor Luke Johnson to bid for the London licence, one of 19 being made available through the broadcast regulator Ofcom.

He said Assembly, which is hosting comedians such as Jim Jeffries, Al Murray and the Pajama Men, will serve to “funnel” acts for the potential London8 television station.

“If we pull off the TV station it will be a great conduit for a lot of the talent that comes here. One of the great pains of television is going through the funnel of getting on air,” said Burdett-Coutts.

In addition to his roles as artistic director of Assembly and chairman of London-based television production facility Riverside TV Studios, he founded the Edinburgh International Marketing Festival three years ago with the Marketing Society Scotland.

The two-day event, which starts tomorrow, is expected to draw up to 500 delegates.

He said the festival will address the “Year of Creative Scotland” and the ways marketers need to change to address the rise of social media.

If the bid for the licence is accepted, his consortium will need a new model of bringing in revenues because the traditional model of relying on TV adverts is “dying”.

“Marketing is not in crisis, it is changing,” said Burdett-Coutts. “The opportunity is growing, but at the same 
time the broad brush stroke of television advertising, where agencies buy everything because of how many people are watching it – that world is dying.”

Burdett-Coutts was embroiled in a row with Edinburgh City Council last year after he was forced to move his Assembly operations to new premises after the Fringe contract to run the newly refurbished Assembly Rooms venue on George Street was awarded to a rival promoter.