MediaCorp Named Terrestrial Broadcaster Of The Year At Asian TV Awards
SINGAPORE: The best and the brightest talent in the television industry were honoured at the Asian Television Awards on Thursday.
MediaCorp was named the Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year at the 12th Asian Television Awards held at the Suntec Convention Centre late Thursday night.
MediaCorp was the second most nominated broadcaster at this year’s event, after Discovery Asia, which had 17 nominations.
The night’s proceedings also gave fans something to scream about. The fans were at Suntec hours before the stars arrived, and they gamely cheered for every one who graced the red carpet.
But the decibels went up once the familiar faces showed up. The guests included television personalities from around the Asia-Pacific region.
Many of them were vying for awards in the 29 categories, of which MediaCorp scored 15 nominations in 10 categories.
The number of points accumulated from the nominations was enough for MediaCorp to be crowned the Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year. It last won the award seven years ago.
MediaCorp CEO, Lucas Chow, said: “It gives us a lot more confidence, it’s an endorsement in terms of the directions that we have taken and also the effort that we have put in throughout all these years.
“So, I think this award will give us a lot of encouragement to put in more effort into coming up with higher quality productions and even more regional content as well.
“People ultimately are the key and I say that this award is really for the dedicated people and the talented people of MediaCorp, because without them, there’s no way that we are going to win any awards.”
Despite having numerous nominations this year for a wide range of programmes, MediaCorp was unable to translate them into wins. Still, it sees its nominations as an accomplishment in the face of keen competition.
And its CEO said that the company must continue to benchmark itself not only regionally but internationally too.
Mr Chow said: “I think when we benchmark more and more, we should benchmark not only the region, but internationally. That is one way we must continue to do in order to win the award in the coming years.”
The Asian Television Awards is Asia’s biggest and it has grown in stature over the years. This year, it had received over 1,300 entries from 14 countries, including newcomers to the competition, Australia and New Zealand.
MediaCorp artistes, who lost out on their awards, said that a nomination is already a bonus.
Huang Biren, a MediaCorp artiste who was nominated for the Best Drama Performance award, said: “A nomination out of so many countries - you’re talking about the whole Asia - is already something to be proud of. So, I think it’s already something that I feel is a great achievement.”
Adrian Pang, a MediaCorp artiste who was nominated for the Best Comedy Performance award, said: “You just kind of carry on, really, as far as I am concerned, the production that I was nominated for, Mag & Me (Maggi & Me), was a project I really enjoyed working on and that in itself was reward enough.”
Many countries were represented in this year’s honour roll, including the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore.
Discovery Network Asia took home the other big award of the night - the Cable/ Satellite Network of the Year. - CNA/ir
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