I am chairing a panel to discuss opportunities in China at the Televisual Factual Festival. China has become a fashionable market in the past year, with a substantial increase in the value of deals made by UK companies, albeit from a very low base.

And it can be a valuable market: the lead sponsor on the latest series of The Voice of China paid over $50m for the privilege.

The most positive sinophile on the panel is Paul Sandler, MD of Objective Productions. Paul has made five trips to China in the past 12 months and believes there is a strong appetite for UK shows and UK knowledge waiting to be exploited.

He has had success there with a version of The Cube, which ran for three series. We also hear from Liz McLeod, of True North Productions, who has long been making films in China for broadcast in the West but whose latest project is a commission from CCTV for domestic transmission.

Fiona Stourton, Creative Director at Ten Alps, is also working on a series for CCTV domestically, about the great global brand names. The final panel member is Rebecca Yang, who set up and is still CEO of the first ideas brokerage dedicated to taking ideas from the West into the Chinese networks, IPCN.

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A big question not only for Chinese networks but for broadcasters around the world is where 'the next big thing' will come from.

In the first decade of the century, we saw a time of almost unprecedented success for entertainment producers and format creators.

Juggernauts seemed to be backing up in the garage, just waiting to burst on to our screens.

Have I Got News, Millionaire, Survivor, Pop Idol and X Factor, and Britain's Got Talent and, of course, Strictly all blazed out from their home territories and set fire to the world's schedules. And there was also Big Brother, a format for sure, if not exactly an entertainment show.

Interestingly, they all, with the exception of Survivor/Big Brother, confirmed the advice given to me many years ago by my friend and mentor, the great Bill Cotton.

When the schedules are feeling a bit stale, take a look backwards, he said. What was playing strongly 20 years ago, say, but is nowhere to be seen now?

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On the subject of new global entertainment formats, we've had a couple of false starts: both Splash! and Rising Star generated huge excitement at the markets but neither proved to be the real deal.

The sizzle in the market is now clearly around drama. Suddenly, new and challenging dramas from many different markets and cultures are delighting the world's television audiences.

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I have the pleasure of chairing the RTS Legends Committee and today we are honouring our first RTS Legends Award winner at a lunch in the House of Lords. Cilla Black has been a true legend of British TV. Her career spans more than five decades and she built hugely successful, long-running, prime-time, Saturday-night series with both the BBC and ITV.

She demonstrates exactly what a professional she is during a very funny, and sometimes emotional, conversation with writer and producer Jeff Pope.

A thoroughly entertaining event and I hope a nice Christmas warm-up for members lucky enough to be there.

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I'm off to one of my last meetings before the holiday, a management review at a web company for whom I consult. Videojug runs a "how to" site that can tell you how to cook a quiche in 10 minutes or how to kiss passionately. And much in between.

It got around 56 million hits in November, with a very high retention rate of over 60%, but we now want to extend its stickiness and shareability.

It's a whole new world and I love the immediacy of it. Budgets may be very small (about £300 per short film), but you do get things done. See an act, meet up and chat, and they can be on the site the next week. Makes a refreshing change!

Paul Jackson is a former Director of Entertainment and Comedy at ITV and Controller of Entertainment at the BBC.