Gary Lineker and Amelia Dimoldenberg join speaker line-up for this year's Edinburgh TV Festival

They'll appear in back-to-back sessions on day one!

The Edinburgh TV Festival, supported by Screen Scotland, has announced that two industry heavyweight speakers will be joining its 2026 lineup: footballing legend, world-renowned sports broadcaster and co-founder of Goalhanger, Gary Lineker, and media trailblazer, host, writer and producer Amelia Dimoldenberg.

Kicking this year's festival off in style, Dimoldenberg and Lineker will appear in back-to-back sessions on the afternoon of day one of the Festival, on Tuesday 25th August.

Amelia Dimoldenberg will be in conversation with international correspondent for The Ankler, Manori Ravindran.

Over the past decade, as a media trailblazer and the creative mastermind behind Chicken Shop Date Dimoldenberg has built a massive global following. The show has helped redefine the celebrity interview and was commissioned under her own production company, Dimz, Inc, which is also behind her latest original series, Passenger Princess where she learns to drive with the help of the ultimate instructors, Formula 1 drivers.

In Edinburgh she’ll be reflecting on the craft she has been refining over the past ten years - from performance direction and casting, to the editorial architecture of an awkward beat - and how those same skills now underpin her evolution into scripted comedy. Away from the screen Dimoldenberg will be talking about her expansion of Dimz Inc. Academy which was launched to create meaningful pathways into the creative industries for young people who may not otherwise have access to them.

In recent years, she has been honoured on various stages, such as The Streamys and The Webbys, for her role as a creative leader within the changing media landscape, and has served as the Academy Award’s official Red Carpet correspondent at the last three consecutive ceremonies.

Also revealed as part of the speaker lineup is Gary Lineker. Currently covering the World Cup in America, where his hit podcast, The Rest is Football is being streamed on Netflix to a global audience, Lineker will sit down with 2026 Advisory Chair Adam Hawkins to reflect on the success Goalhanger has found since launching in 2018 and their ambition as a media and entertainment juggernaut.

Recently named Britain’s fastest-growing company, Goalhanger produces chart-topping shows across history, politics, sport, business, entertainment, current affairs and audio drama, which last year alone were streamed more than 750 million times. On the cusp of launching its first live event, The Rest is Fest, Lineker will also discuss its recent landmark investment deal with Chernin Group, the company behind blockbuster films, Planet of the Apes and Greatest Showman, and its new accelerator initiative, which will see six content creators receive up to £10,000 to help elevate their production standards and experiment with short-form storytelling across entertainment, lifestyle, sport, politics, science & tech, and finance.

The Festival has also revealed further sessions within the wider programme, which cover visualised podcasts, celebrity documentaries and format development.

What started as an emerging format is now a mainstream content priority, but not everyone has kept pace. The New Primetime: Inside the Visualised Podcast Revolution will feature a panel of Podcasting Powerhouses to examine how broadcasters, streamers, indies and creators are navigating a landscape that has changed so fundamentally in just the last five years.

Beyond the Icon: The Art and Future of the Celebrity Doc sees the filmmakers behind some of the most watched and talked-about celebrity documentaries of recent years discuss how filmmakers preserve authenticity and where the celebrity doc goes next.

Tackling how and why the system for developing formats is being squeezed from every direction, Formats Under Pressure: Is Development Broken? will explore why there seems to be more ideas for fewer opportunities, and what needs to change as reliance on international hits grows and the creator economy gathers pace.

Further speaker and session announcements will be made in the coming weeks.

This year’s Festival, by Screen Scotland, will once again be held at the EICC in Edinburgh, and passes are on sale now here.

Edinburgh TV Festival runs Tuesday 25th to Friday 28th August and the Awards will take place on Thursday 27 August at the EICC