BBC1 wins Channel of The Year

GEITF: BBC1 was named C21Media Channel of the Year at the annual Edinburgh TV Awards this evening as part of the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore accepts the Channel of the Year 2015 award

Drama hits such as The Missing, factual entertainment format The Great British Bake Off, and live coverage of football’s World Cup in Brazil saw BBC1 take home the top prize at the GEITF awards night.

It was a double success for channel controller Charlotte Moore, with critically acclaimed drama Happy Valley taking the New Programme of the Year award, having attracted a consolidated audience of seven million.

The show’s producer, StudioCanal-owned Red Production Company, won Production Company of the Year, having also worked on Channel 4’s Russell T Davies trio Cucumber, Banana and Tofu, as well as another BBC hit, Last Tango in Halifax.

Best Online Innovation – a new category this year – went to Reverse the Odds, an app that ran alongside Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer event. The mobile game analysed viewers risk and fed the data back to Cancer Research UK scientists.

Voting will remain open to delegates for The TV Moment of the Year category via the festival app until the end of the event tomorrow.

Festival director Lisa Campbell said: “Huge congratulations to this year’s winners. The calibre of entrants has been particularly high, making choosing our winners especially hard.”