The Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival - a press round-up

The 35th Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival is underway: below is a round up of the highlights of the first two days:

The first day's line-up included a lively 'Build Your Own BBC' session, chaired by Jeremy Vine, the panel featured Ash Atalla, MD Roughcut TV; Alex Connock, CEO Ten Alps; David Elstein, chairman DCD Media; George Entwistle, controller of knowledge commissioning at the BBC; Anne McElvoy, journalist and broadcaster; John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs editor. The session was covered live by Digital Spy who invited the audience to join a debate over the future shape and size of the corporation. There were additional 'Meet The Controller' sessions with Richard Klein (BBC Four) and Stuart Murphy (Sky1 HD, Sky1, 2 & 3, BSkyB) The day ended with the annual James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture: a speech centred around the role of traditional media in the current political landscape.

The MacTaggart lecture was widely anticipated as BBC Director General Mark Thompson's opportunity to respond to James Murdoch's lecture last year. In advance The Guardian reported thatMark Thompson was 'to make vigorous defence of BBC' while Sky news online ran with: 'BBC Head Mark Thompson To Tackle Critics'.

The speech, broadcast and streamed online live on the BBC News Channel and Sky, generated significant discussion on Twitter and other online forums and made Mark Thompson's speech one of the Top10 trending topics on Twitter between 8-9pm.

By the following morning, the main themes to attract press pick-up were the BBC's support of British content, presenter pay and the licence fee while BBC iPlayer's international roll-out was the most talked about topic on blogs such as Pocket Lint and Paid Content. Prominent media commentators Beehive City have also been giving comprehensive coverage and commentary on the speech.

In an article written by Mark Thompson for the Guardian, based on his speech, he suggests that 'Sky TV should invest far more in talent'. The BBC reported that the 'BBC is facing 'a moment of realism' around next year's licence fee negotiation. The Independent reported the speech as being: 'A powerful case for a well-funded and confident public broadcaster'. The Telegraph led with: 'BBC to cut pay for top presenters' , the Times with 'Big names to depart BBC as Director-General pledges deeper cuts', and the Mail with 'It's pay cuts or the sack, says BBC boss - as millionaire stars warned: 'You're replaceable''; while most of the tabloids focused on the same aspect, with the Mirror going with: 'Nobody Is Safe From BloodbathAt The Beeb'.

You can read Mark's speech in full on the Press Office website.

Saturday morning in Edinburgh saw a post-MacTaggart Q&A chaired by Channel 4 Newscaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy take place. The highlights of this can be found on our previous blog post here. Meanwhile the Guardian's Media section focused on the Director General's comments on the BBC's move to Salford, .

The lunchtime session with BBC One controller Jay Hunt, hosted by Simon Mayo was followed live online again by Digital Spy where news of the recommissioning of both Luther and Sherlock as well as a dramatisation of Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong was widely reported by The Stage, Digital Spy and the Press Association. Added to this, a tweet about the return of the series by Sherlock's creator, Mark Gatiss also caused a huge buzz.

The Festival continues tomorrow. For the full schedule, visit the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival website.

You can follow the @bbcpress and @AboutTheBBCTwitter feeds for updates from the event.