ELIGIBILITY

Only programmes produced by television broadcasters (terrestrial, cable and satellite) or television production companies whose PRIMARY BASE is in one of the following countries will be eligible: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.

Programmes co-produced between companies whose primary base is not in one of the countries listed above will not be eligible.

To ensure eligibility of both broadcaster and TV production company (if applicable), broadcasters should credit the production company used in the space provided on the Entry Form.

To be eligible for entry, all programmes must be broadcast for the first time between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. No repeated programmes aired during this period will be eligible. Proof in the form of a published schedule of the transmission time and date will be required.

There is no limit to the amount of entries that can be submitted. Each entry is a separate submission and requires its own entry form and entry fee.

SUBMISSIONS

Only duly completed entries using the Official Entry Form are accepted. Failure to comply may result in disqualification. In addition, each entry must include the following:

1. An English-language soundtrack or English subtitles or an accompanying script in English if submitted programme is in another language.


2. All required supporting documentation as indicated in the entry form.


3. Payment for each entry. Entries will not be included for judging if payment is not received together with the entry form.

With the exception of the Performance categories, composite entries may not be entered into the Awards. For all other categories, submitted programmes must be completed and entered as originally broadcast. The only permitted form of editing is to remove commercial breaks. Any composite programmes will automatically be disqualified.

For all Performance categories, namely: Best News Presenter or Anchor (PE060), Best Current Affairs Presenter (PE061), Best Entertainment Presenter (PE062), Best Drama Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (PE063), Best Drama Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (PR064) and Best Comedy Performance by an Actor/Actress (PE065), Best Drama Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (PE066), Best Drama Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (PE067), the following are required:

1. A maximum 5-minute composite must be submitted. All selected items must be from the same programme and episode of which is within the awards qualifying period.


2. All submissions using composite entries must also include, on the same DVD, a completed and unedited programme (within the qualifying period) featuring the submitted presenter/performer.

All entry forms must include the company stamp and must be signed by one of the following: President, Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, Head of Programming or Head of Department. In doing so, he/she certifies that the entry material is submitted free of encumbrances and grants the organiser permission to use the material in conjunction with the Asian Television Awards process and ceremony, promotion and publicity surrounding the event in all media.

The organiser of Asian Television Awards assumes no responsibility for the acts or omissions of those individuals or entities submitting entries pursuant to this notice. All submitting entities and/or individuals are advised to review submissions with respect to correct name credits and other information.

Submissions received after the closing date for the Awards will only be accepted at the discretion of the organiser and judges. Deadline for entries is July 16, 2010.

In the event that both the broadcaster and the independent production company enter the same programme, the broadcaster’s entry will take precedence over the entry submitted by the production company.

In the event of duplicate entries, entry fees will not be refunded.

All DVDs and submitted entry materials will only be kept for one month following the announcement of the winners. Materials can only be returned if the submitting company arranges fully paid return delivery costs.

ENTRY FORMAT

Submitted videos will ONLY be accepted in Flash Video (FLV) format.
You may convert the videos using this tool: http://www.leawo.com/download/dvdripper/dvd2flv_free.exe
It is a DVD to FLV freeware tool.
Entries will be accepted on DVD only. The ‘readability’ of the DVD is the responsibility of the entrant. DVDs that cannot be ‘read’ cannot be judged and entry fees will not be refunded.

The following guidelines shall apply:
• The video files are advised to be compressed to no more than 400 MB per clip as it would affect the performance of loading your videos, leading to a bad user experience to the judges
• Label DVD with: Entry ID, Category, Programme Title, Performer’s name (for performance categories), Entrants, Total Running Time, and Station/Organization.
• Use a clear sleeve or case.
• Send in two DVDs per entry, plus one DVD with a 30-second trailer capturing the best scene of the submitted programme and three still images.

JUDGING

The Awards will be judged by a minimum of six juries, each ideally comprising 5 or more members. The minimum number of judges required to judge each separate category is three.

No more than four representatives from one country may be on the same jury. No standard jury will include more than one representative from one company.

The judges reserve the right to request further information about the programme or performer from the nominator. Failure to meet such requests in sufficient detail may result in disqualification.

The judges reserve the right to move any entry to a different entry category if it is judged that such a move is warranted. Entrants will be notified before a category reassignment is made. Entries will not be returned.

The judging process will be conducted on-line, and the results will be tabulated and audited by international auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Judges may vote for programmes produced for, or submitted by their company or associated company. However, points awarded for that particular judge’s vote will be an average of all the judges’ votes (including their own). The averages will be rounded up or down to the nearest whole number.

No announcement of the winners will be made in advance of the Awards Ceremony. Short-listed programmes, performers and companies will be announced in October 2010.

The judges’ decision will be final. Neither the Asian Television Awards nor the judges will enter into any discussion or correspondence regarding the outcome of any decision.

TERRESTRIAL CHANNEL OF THE YEAR AWARD, THE CABLE & SATELLITE CHANNEL OF THE YEAR AWARD, TERRESTRIAL BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR AWARD AND THE CABLE & SATELLITE NETWORK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Points from the winning entries of the various categories from the Awards will be used to determine the winners of the Terrestrial Channel of the Year Award, the Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year Award, Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year award and the Cable & Satellite Network of the Year Award.

NOTE: the Terrestrial Channel of the Year Award and the Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year Award are for the single terrestrial or cable & satellite channel gaining the most wins or highly commendeds for programming produced for and aired on that single channel. Whereas, Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year Award and the Cable & Satellite Network of the Year Award are combination of points for programming wins or highly commended from all channels under the same broadcaster or network.

For each win in a Programming category (e.g. Best Children’s Programme), the channel will receive 10 points. For each highly commended in a Programming category, the channel will receive 2 points.

For each win in the Performance and Technical & Creative category (e.g. Best Comedy Actor/Actress), the channel will receive half the points awarded for a Programming category win, i.e. a channel that wins in a Performance and Technical & Creative category will get 5 points, and highly commended 1 point.

Only entries submitted directly by broadcasters will be counted towards points for Terrestrial Channel of the Year Award and Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year. Entries submitted by production companies directly will not count towards Terrestrial Channel of the Year Award, Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year Award, Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year Award and Cable & Satellite Network of the Year Award totals.

The channel with the highest number of points will be awarded Terrestrial Channel of the Year Award or Cable & Satellite Channel of the Year; the second highest terrestrial channel and cable & satellite channel will both be highly commended.

The broadcaster or network with the highest number of points will be awarded Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year Award or Cable & Satellite Network of the Year; the second highest terrestrial broadcaster and cable & satellite network will both be highly commended.