Today’s FT Creative Business diary reports -

“Where’s there brass, there’s muck. When Ofcom implied its PSP idea might attract �300m of public funding, Diary knew there would be interest and controversy.

And more than 200 people attended the purely theoretical ‘pitch’ for the PSP at the Institute of Physics last week. The PSP concept provokes strong passions, though there was a broad consensus from the attendees

Diary talked to on one point. Channel 4 came out of the day quite badly, with CEO Andy Duncan less than impressive (’Cautious’, say fans; ‘They’ve lost the initiative’, say critics) when he was asked why the station should be ‘future-proofed’ at all.

Diary has started a future-proof count for the number of times station execs use this horrid expression. Of the three ‘fake’ pitchers, the Great White (Haired) Hope of TV, David Docherty, seems to have most impressed, though Spectrum also had its backers.

One key PSP issue to emerge is should it be a fund or a publisher-broadcaster? New entrants think that if it is a fund, existing players such as C4 will lap it up. They’re pushing for the latter option. Truly, the PSP is turning out to be the most entertaining soap in TV currently.”