Content Innovation Awards: the shortlist

Digital TV Europe and TBI have unveiled the short-list for the first Content Innovation Awards, the latest addition to delegates’ diaries at MIPCOM in October.

The event, which Digital TV Europe is hosting in partnership with our sister title, TBI on the eve of the Cannes show this year, will celebrate the most impressive innovations in TV content and the technology that enables its delivery over the past year.

For the full list, and more information about the Content Innovation Awards, including how to book tickets, click here.

Channels

Key categories for TV channel providers include Best International Networks Group, Channel of the Year and Best New Channel. In the Networks category, global programming giant Discovery will battle it out with Sony Pictures Television and Trace, while Channel of the Year will see Discovery’s UK & Ireland flagship channel compete for the honours with its own sports service Eurosport, Trace Urban HD, Mezzo Live HD and Gusto TV.

The Best New Channel category will also see a five-way contest between AMC Global, BBC Brit, Non Stop People, Viacom’s Spike and international kids channel Fix&Foxi.

Multichannel Networks have been a key investment area for channel groups over the last few years. BroadbandTV, Endemol Beyond and Barcroft Media will be competing for top spot in the MCN of the Year category at the inaugural Content Innovation Awards.

Producers and distributors

The Content Innovation Awards will include an award for Best Content Distributor, with a shortlist that includes Content Media, Global Agency, TCB Media Rights, Endemol Shine International and ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

The Most Influential Production Company category will see a four-way contest between Entertainment One Television, MarVista Entertainment, New Media Vision Trading and New Pictures.

TV is nothing without the shows themselves, and the Content Innovation Awards will recognize the effort that goes into creating and marketing top series with the Best Series Launch of the Year Award, featuring a shortlist that includes Season 4 of Dynamo: Magician Impossible by Discovery, Lip Sync Battle by Viacom International Media Networks, Wataha by HBO Europe and Wolf Hall by the BBC and BBC Worldwide.

UHD, multiscreen & social TV

With Ultra High-Definition TV now very much seen as on the way, the Content Innovation Awards will see BT, Blue Ant Media, Sky Deutschland, Filmbox and TravelXP compete for the honour of being recognised in the 4K Initiative of the Year category.

TV Everywhere is now a must-have feature for pay TV operators and their content partners, as well as a growing number of free-to-air content providers. Competing for the Multiscreen TV Awards are Liberty Global for Horizon Go, KPN for its iTV service, Nemo TV by Nemo Telecom, The Voice and The Voice Global App by Talpa and Sky Online by Sky Deutschland.

Having a social strategy is now seen as key for programme makers and, increasingly, also for platform operators. The shortlist for our Social TV Innovation of the Year Award includes Keshet/Mako’s Hacking App, Watch with Twitter by Orange, The Box Plus Network’s Vote4Music, Tavgance Media’s Second screen & TV Monetisation Platform for Kanal D and #SansLeMains by Marc Dorcel.

Our overall Pay TV Service of the Year category will meanwhile will see pay TV and OTT providers battle it out in a four way battle between M7 Group, Videocon D2H, Cirkus and YipTV.

Technology

The Content Innovation Awards would not be complete without a category honouring the technology behind the innovation. We will present three TV Technology Awards on the evening, one for the Second Screen Experience (with Viaccess-Orca, Voyager Apps, Turner Latin America and Kaltura’s TNTGO, EE’s LTE Broadcast trial, Netgem’s Telco TV Multiscreen Solution and Talpa’s The Big Picture in contention), one for Content Discovery (Freesat’s Showcase, Rovi’s Personalised Discovery Solution, Siemens’ OTT Swipe the Kids Edition, UPC Romania’s TV Recommendations Application and XITE’s Personalised Music Television form the shortlist) and one for Service-Enabling Technologies (with a shortlist of Conviva’s Intelligent Control Platform, S3 Group’s StormTest Warning Centre, Harmonic’s Electra XVM, Screenz Cross Media’s Real-Time Platform and Pace and Foxtel’s iQ3 Personal Video Recorder).

For more information about the Content Innovation Awards and to book tickets, visit www.contentinnovationawards.com.