MUMBAI: The annual Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) prizes awards ceremony, hosted by China Central Television (CCTV-China) has presented awards to broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region in recognition of programming and broadcast engineering excellence.

211 entries were received for the annual award‘s radio and TV categories. There were 147 entries for the TV categories, and 64 for radio.

TV categories included drama, entertainment, children, youth, news, documentary, and sports. Additionally, a special jury prize was also kept for programmes targeting broadcasters from less developed countries which showed creativity despite the limited resources available.

Categories for radio were drama, infotainment, children and youth, news, documentary, external broadcasts, and the special jury prize.

"We are most delighted with the quality of entries this year. The interest in the radio programme category has increased over the past year and in particular, there was serious competition for the TV documentary category," said ABU director of programmes Tatsuya Nakamura.

ABU Prize for sports programmes chairperson Remesh Kumar added, "It was nice to see a whole range of broadcasters and producers from a variety of nationalities submitting their work. There was also a spectrum of presentations relating to sports from live productions, to studio presentations to documentaries."

The winners for ABU prizes 2006 are:

- Radio winners for ABU prizes 2006

Drama
Haru‘s Diary (NHK-Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan)

Special commendation for drama

At the very Beginning (RTHK-Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Infotainment
Could This Be A Mozart (TBS-Tokyo Broadcasting System, Japan)

Children and youth
Voice of Happiness (IRIB-Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iran)

News
The Breaking Point-From Teach to Kill (RTHK- Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Documentary

A Green Song Coming from the Desert (RTPRC/CNR-Radio and Television of the People‘s Republic of China/China National Radio, China)

External broadcasts
A Childhood Shaken by Bird Flu (RTPRC/CRI-Radio and Television of the People‘s Republic of China/China Radio International, China)

Special jury prize
Life in Green Hills (BB-Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh)

- TV winners for ABU prizes 2006

Drama
The Ice Wall Ep.2 A Mortal Challenge (NHK-Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan)

Entertainment
Changing Our Child‘s Behaviour (SBS-Seoul Broadcasting System, Korea)

Children
Hurray! Cool Daddy! (EBS-Korea Educational Broadcasting System, Korea)

Youth
Victory of Youth (RTPRC/CCTV- Radio and Television of the People‘s Republic of China/China Central Television, China)

News
Dying Alone (NHK-Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan)

Documentary
Two Lives and an Old Mountain Lodge (NAB/Chubu Nippon Broadcasting, Japan)

Sports
2006 World Cup Games (MBC-Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Korea)

Special jury prize
Crossing Fires-Peace and Harmonies (YATV-Young Asia Television, Sri Lanka)

- ABU CASBAA Unicef child‘s rights award

Conquering the Darkness - The Fight Against Memories of Abuse‘, (Shinichi Sugimoto, Kansai Telecasting Corporation-Japan)

- Technical Prizes

ABU Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award 2006

Engineer in chief All India Radio (AIR) India, Ansu Sekhar Guin.

ABU Engineering Industry Excellence Award 2006
RandD laboratories, pioneer corporation general manager and director general of corporate Dr Osamu Yamada.

ABU Technical Review Best Article Prize 2006
Character appearance retrieval and analysis (CARA) system for TV Programmes by Jung Byunghee and Park Sungchoon from KBS-Korean Broadcasting System Korea.

Dennis Anthony Memorial Award 2006 for outstanding news coverage by an Asiavision member

Islamic republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) Iran.