The television industry descends on Edinburgh this week for its annual jamboree, and there promises to be a lot to talk about.

The 2017 Edinburgh International Television festival will include Jon Snow, the Channel 4 News presenter, give the flagship MacTaggart lecture, meaning fake news and Donald Trump are likely to be among the topics on the agenda in the Scottish capital.

Perhaps even more intriguingly, Snow will be interviewed afterwards by Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives. Given his alleged “fuck the Tories” chant at this year’s Glastonbury festival, this should be a fascinating match-up.

With respect to the veteran news presenter though, many TV executives are probably most excited about the appearance of Sir David Attenborough, who will talk about his career and perhaps offer a preview of the eagerly anticipated Blue Planet II, which will be broadcast later this year on the BBC.

But amid the pats on the back and the high-level discussion, the BBC pay list will loom over the festival.

The publication of the BBC’s top earners last month inevitably led to criticism of the amount the corporation pays to stars such as Chris Evans, Gary Lineker and Graham Norton.

The revelation of a gender pay gap at the BBC genuinely surprised insiders and others in the media industry. It was not so much the 10%gap across the corporation that caused the surprise – this, after all, is lower than the average of 18% across the UK as a whole – but the disparity among the top earners.

As a reminder, the top seven earners at the BBC are all male, and no female stars are earning more than £500,000 a year, according to the list of top earners. Just a third of the 96 on-screen stars earning more than £150,000 are female.

That more than 40 of the most high-profile women at the BBC felt the need to write to Tony Hall, the director general, about the pay gap shows that this is a genuine issue for the corporation. Francesca Unsworth, the head of the World Service and one of the most senior female executives at the BBC, admits in an interview with the Guardian, to be published on Monday, that the atmosphere within the corporation is “febrile” after the publication of the salary list.

Hall now has 12 months to show that the BBC is making progress on the gender pay gap. It is inconceivable for the director general to allow the BBC to publish its pay list again next year and show no progress on the issue.

To be fair to Hall, his ambition that by 2020 there should be no gap and an equal split of male and female presenters is a noble one. However, it is just that – an ambition.

Although significant progress has already been made in local radio, enforcing this shift across the BBC will be more difficult, particularly when the corporation is trying to bring down costs.

Insiders have suggested that male stars and presenters will have to accept pay cuts, but again, this is easier said than done. In order to reach gender equality, the BBC may have to accept male stars leaving for bigger pay deals at rival broadcasters.

These rivals – ITV, Channel 4, and Sky – will face their own questions about gender and pay in Edinburgh. Although there is no prospect of them publishing the pay of their top earners, there is an acceptance across the TV industry that most companies could still do better.

Programme-makers insist the gender disparity is less of a problem in drama than news and entertainment. The announcement that Jodie Whittaker will be the first women to play the lead role in Doctor Who helps this argument.

However, there are clearly still issues. Take one of the highest-grossing films of 2017 so far: Wonder Woman. Yes, it is a Hollywood film rather than a British television programme, but the fact Gal Gadot was paid just $300,000 (£233,000) for the lead role – significantly less than male leads have been paid for equivalent blockbusters – generated headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

All media companies need to take responsibility for erasing the gap. This means hiring more women to senior and high-profile roles – on- and off-screen – and recognising that is unacceptable for two people in the same role to be paid differently.

While it was the government who forced the BBC to publish its list of top earners, (and from next year will force all medium and large companies to publish their gender pay gap), the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has shown little willingness to introduce further legislation to encourage progress.

In a sign that forcing the BBC to publish its top earners was always just an excuse to bash the corporation, the government did not even put a mechanism in place to judge whether what the BBC is paying its stars represented value for money, or whether the gender pay gap was out of kilter with the rest of the industry.

As result, it is the TV industry itself that is best placed to offer judgment and drive progress. Edinburgh, it’s over to you

James Murdoch, not such a chip off the old block?

The leaked email from James Murdoch last week condemning Donald Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville was a rare public sign that his politics may differ from his father’s.

“I can’t even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists. Democrats, Republicans, and others must all agree on this, and it compromises nothing for them to do so,” he said.

Rupert Murdoch has been a longstanding ally of Trump, and while he may well feel the same as James about the president’s response to Charlottesville, he has not said so publicly.

The email was a firm rebuke to Trump from one of the most high-profile business leaders in the US. But it was also a fascinating reminder that James Murdoch and his brother Lachlan have their own political views and could take a different approach to running the family empire from their father.

James, who is the chairman of Sky, is scheduled to speak in Cambridge next month at the Royal Television Society’s annual convention. Never one to mince his words when given a public platform, his address is eagerly anticipated.

Ofcom needs to offer real diversity

Ofcom is under increasing pressure to do more to improve diversity at the BBC.

A consultation into how the media regulator plans to manage the BBC has attracted widespread criticism for not setting targets for the number of off-screen employees at the corporation with black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The campaign for Ofcom to take action is backed by a broad coalition, including comedian and actor Sir Lenny Henry, who has spoken passionately and eloquently on the topic.

Ofcom is scheduled to respond to the consultation as early as next month. Hopefully it will take the opportunity to set targets for off-screen diversity at the BBC and send a message regarding the importance of the corporation setting an example.

Furthermore, this target should exclude World Service, which is already far more diverse that the rest of the BBC owing to the range of language services it provides to countries around the world.