More Added to Lineup for MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival

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LONDON: Shine Group chairman and CEO Elisabeth Murdoch has been confirmed for this year’s MacTaggart Lecture, while Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Sue Vertue are on board to host a Sherlock master class at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Murdoch commented: “To be invited to deliver the MacTaggart lecture is a great honor and one I am delighted to accept. At such an incredibly exciting time for our ever-changing industry, it is a privilege to be entrusted with its most prestigious platform to address some of the countless challenges, extraordinary opportunities and profound questions that we collectively face. I am very much looking forward to it.”

Advisory chair of the festival, Kenton Allen, added: "Elisabeth is one of the foremost creative leaders in our business and she promises to give us a fascinating insight into what the future may hold for content creators. She is the first woman to give the MacTaggart in 16 years and the third member of the Murdoch family to give the speech. Both these facts, will I’m sure, give us a highly memorable launch pad for the 2012 festival. Together with a much more user friendly Thursday-Saturday schedule and the team behind Sherlock spilling the beans behind the drama of the year it’s already shaping up to be a very special event.”

Executive chair of the festival, Elaine Bedell, said: “I’m very pleased in my second year as executive chair to be able to announce the first female MacTaggart lecturer for 16 years—and for it to be Elisabeth Murdoch, who is indisputably a major figure and a leading creative leader in the television community. Liz has been both a broadcaster and a producer, has a major footprint in the States and across Europe, as well as the U.K., and is uniquely placed to offer a broad, insightful, and thoroughly well- connected appraisal of the many changes facing the media industry.”

Now in its 37th year, the festival will take place from August 23 to 25.