Netflix triumphs at Edinburgh TV Festival’s awards

The awards ceremony, hosted by Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed, took place as part of this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival. 

The ceremony saw Netflix named Streamer of the Year, beating BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, ITVX and U. Adolescence won Best Drama and its young star, Owen Cooper, took home the award for Breakthrough Performance. 

Jessica Gunning won Best TV Actor – Drama for her role in Baby Reindeer. Netflix also won Best TV Moment of the Year, as voted for by the public, for the carriage scene between Penelope and Colin in Bridgerton season three. 

Elsewhere, Prime Video comedy series Last One Laughing picked up the Best Entertainment Series prize, and Jack Rooke’s Big Boys won best comedy series. 

The Best Popular Factual Series award was given to the BBC’s Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour and Best Documentary was given to ITV’s Our Land: Israel’s Other War. 

Channel 5 won the coveted Channel of the Year award, ahead of BBC One, BBC Scotland, BBC Two, Channel 4 and ITV1. 

The Production Company of the Year prize went to Yorkshire-based Adolescence producer Warp Films. 

A day before the awards, veteran comedian Sir Lenny Henry picked up his outstanding achievement award, recognising his decades-long career in the industry. 

Bianca Newby, Head of Awards for The Edinburgh TV Festival, said: “This year’s awards celebrate the extraordinary imagination and innovation driving our industry forward. 

“Each nominee and winner has shown remarkable resilience and originality in discovering new ways to tell impactful stories.” 

Adrian Pennington recently investigated the claim, made at the 50th Edinburgh TV Festival by Channel 4’s Head of News & Current Affairs & Specialist Factual & Sport Louisa Compton, that Netflix were ‘TV tourists’ for hoovering up British TV talent after public service broadcasters had put in all the hard work and funding. Discover more here.