MUMBAI: The Banff World Television Festival joins forces with NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, to offer up the NHK Prize.

This is a new version of the NHK President’s Prize which has been awarded for the past six years. The new NHK Prize will be given for the best HD international co-production. NHK will sponsor it with a $20,000 (Cdn) cash award. The winner will be announced at the 2007 Awards ceremony during the event which takes place in Banff, Canada,from 10 -13 June 2007.

BWTVF CEO Robert Montgomery says, "We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with NHK again. As leaders in HD technology, NHK’s support of this award will help to ensure that the best new HD productions are recognized.”

NHK head International programme acquisition and co-production Fumio Narashima says, “NHK always has a keen eye on quality programming and strives to explore the frontiers of innovation and creativity with international partners. Given our dedication to superior programming and the increasing global dominance of HDTV, we hope to further encourage excellent HD international co-productions with this new award”.

All internationally co-produced HD programmes submitted for the 2007 Banff Television Awards will be eligible for nomination. Producers are urged to submit as soon as possible as the deadline for submissions for the Awards is 23 February 23, 2007.

The Banff World Television Awards include 18 categories covering the major programme genres. New to the awards this year is the Best Telenovela/Drama Serial Program category. In addition to this, BWTVF’s 2007 programme competition will include several expanded categories for its Interactive Programme: Best Mobile Programme Enhancement Award, Best Internet Programme Enhancement Award and Best Internet Only Production Award.