TV Awards ups the ante

Wanting to top the number of entries from last year’s event, the Asian TV Awards has added new categories, and tweaked some established ones for the 2011 awards.

Now in its 16th year, the annual awards night, to be held at the Shangri-La Hotel on December 8, has increased the number of awards in the Documentary and Technical and Creative categories. In addition to Best Documentary Programme (one-off), there is now an award for Best Documentary Series and awards for Best Drama Screenplay and Best Theme Song for a series.

To recognize the talent and expertise in the region, the awards for Best Cinematography, Best Direction and Best Editing, will be given to the individuals who produced these programmes for channels in Asia.

The Best Children’s Programme category has also been tweaked to represent the variety of shows being developed in this genre. There is now an additional award for Best Pre-School Education programme.

Raymond Wong, CEO of Ten Alps Communications Asia, which hosts the awards, said the changes are all about staying relevant to the industry. “With these changes, we’re hoping entries will exceed the 1,000 we garnered in 2010,” he said.

Entry submissions begin now. Entry deadline is 31 July 2011. For an entry pack and complete list of category definitions, check out www.asiantvawards.com.