With Lauren Laverne as host, I always figured this year's Channel of the Year Awards would be a let-down - but I never expected something as depressing as that.

Lauren aside - in fairness, she did well to make something from nothing - it felt as if someone had come along and deliberately removed any joy from the normally-entertaining ceremony.

As I approached the conference centre with usual punctuality (the awards were due to begin 2 minutes later), I was surprised to see a large number of delegates exiting, previous award winner Lorraine Heggessey among them. Had the awards been cancelled? Had Miss Laverne's waters broken just before the curtain call, maybe? Or had Gerry McCann thrown a last-minute secret party over in Soho House?

Strangely not. The ceremony was still on course to begin, albeit a little later than planned. The organisers were in no mood for foreplay either: the champagne reception, a traditional precursor to the main event, was curiously missing. Not a tipsy exec in sight.

The awards themselves were a surprisingly rushed affair. This year there were just three gongs handed out, as opposed to six last year. Missing were the TV personality of the year award, the industry player of the year award and the brand new award for producer of the year. Where did they go to?

Also MIA were the guest presenters. This year we had two - both presenting the same award - in the form of Corrie stars Vicky Binns and someone else we couldn't remember the name of.

No atmosphere, no tension, no fun.