Edinburgh TV Festival live blog: Stuart Murphy on Sky1, Atlantic, more

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Day two of the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival - or MGEITF for short - kicks off bright and early with a session from Sky's director of Sky Entertainment Stuart Murphy.

Digital Spy will be live-blogging the talk - hosted by TV's Matthew Wright - so keep it here for updates on Sky1's new output, Sky Atlantic's latest acquisitions and more. Just nobody mention those Mad Men ratings...

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10:25And that's a wrap on this Sky session with Stuart Murphy - stay tuned to Digital Spy for more news and live blogs direct from the Edinburgh International Television Festival.


10:23More on his hopes for Sky's future: "We need a more modern view of women, so I'd love that to come through. We definitely need more long-running, pre-watershed comedies for Sky1..." in the style of returning series Spy.


10:22An Idiot Abroad was a big success, so Sky is looking for more "doofus factual" shows, which could be a big hit sub-genre, Murphy insists.


10:18Murphy praises the "interactivity" of shows like Big Brother and The Million Pound Drop - "I would love The Million Pound Drop on our channel," he admits.


10:17Murphy won't rule out a move to the US though - he points out that Sky is collaborating with Cinemax on Strike Back and with NBC on the new Jonathan Rhys Meyers Dracula series.


10:16Would Murphy ever return to the BBC in any capacity? "I think it's pretty unlikely - I love Sky, I love what it does, I love how it treats people."


10:13Is the violent, sex-fuelled Strike Back really suitable for Sky1's family audience? "I love it - that's going to be a bit of a mainstay on Sky1," says Murphy, adding that the show has "passionate" fans, many of them teenagers.


10:12Despite Matthew Wright's prodding about ratings, Murphy insists that the performance of Rihanna's Style Evolution was perfectly acceptable. "Find me a channel controller who would turn down Rihanna in her own series," he says.


10:11Murphy wants less studio-based shows on Sky1 - "We need something of enormous scale," he says. As for Sky Living, he wants to make "broad shows" aimed less directly at women.


10:07Murphy talks about the output of Sky Arts, which has boosted its ratings by around 250%. "We need to keep being maverick - there's a worry that what comes with success is moderation. We need big shows - we wouldn't have a problem spending £3 million on one series."


10:06"It was a punt - it didn't work," he adds of Clever Dicks - doesn't sound like a new series is in the works, then...


10:04The thorny topic of Anne Widdecombe quiz Clever Dicks - which airs, rather oddly, on Sky Atlantic - is raised. Murphy admits that the series was oddly placed on the "cinematic, world-class" channel, but explains that much of their acquired HBO content has to be aired post-watershed, leaving a big gap in the schedules.


10:02On Sky's commissioning process, Murphy says: "The best I can do and the best the commissioners can do is lay at what we want... we're not there to culturally enrich the nation. As a commissioner, your job is to prod and provoke - to draw out something that people don't know they have in them. It's not to buy something they place on the table."


09:57The conversation moves inevitably onto the Olympics, with Murphy praising the "brilliant" opening ceremony which he says "changed the game" for television. "It was a big cultural moment," he gushes. "Someone brilliantly defined what it is to be British, in all its shades."


09:55Is it not strange that Steve Coogan - an outspoken critic of Rupert Murdoch - is working with Sky? "It's a completely separate company," Murphy insists. "Sky is very, very hot on values. It's very open and collaborative within Sky."


09:53Murphy argues that Channel 4 should have shown more faith in "the guys behind The Inbetweeners" and commissioned an entire series of Chickens, not aired a one-off pilot late at night.


09:51Matthew Wright brings up Sky's acquisition of rejected Channel 4 comedy pilot Chickens starring Simon Bird and Joe Thomas - "It really made me laugh and I sometimes think people over-intellectualise comedy. Chickens really made me just p*ss myself laughing and I'm amazed that Channel 4 turned it down."


09:49Murphy's again criticising the BBC - while Sky has a "clear creative vision", the Beeb "leave scripts on the desk" for years, he says. He points out that someone as cynical as Charlie Brooker would not be attracted to Sky1 simply by cash.


09:47The BBC's claims that Sky are doing well simply because the corporation has money is "pathetic", Murphy argues. He claims that Sky attracts talent because it takes "creative endeavours" and takes time to build on relationships. He calls accusations to the contrary "a load of s**t".


09:42Murphy claims that Sky doesn't have a "moral issue" about spending money on programming and defends the amount of cash splashed on the Premier League rights.


09:41Murphy insists that he is happy with Sky's ratings, pointing out that many viewers watch via Sky Anytime and Sky Go. "The overnights are only part of the story and it would be frankly a bit thick of people just to go on the overnights. It doesn't make sense to judge one moment on one platform."


09:39The Sky head describes upcoming comedies such as Charlie Brooker's A Touch of Cloth and Julia Davis series Hunderby as "really creatively different to comedy that's out there", which he claims can be very "smug" and "white male".


09:37On Sky as a business, Murphy says there is a "wilful naivety" in British TV - people who were "financially reckless" were considered "creative" and he adds: "You can't have creative endeavour without things making sense financially."


09:35Murphy talks about how proud he is of Sky's recent output. "It feels very different to the Sky I turned up to - Sky1 just felt mediocre. [We've] become famously fussy - you place expectations on yourself. It starts with changing the goalposts."


09:31Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Sherlock) is in the audience at this Sky session - checking out the opposition?

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