Discovery biggest winner at ATA 2007

Singapore - Discovery Networks Asia was the biggest winner at the 2007 Asian Television Awards last Thursday, and was crowned ‘Cable & Satellite Network of the Year'.

Discovery walked home with the most wins on top of its runner-up positions, commendations and nominations. It clinched top spot in four categories, came runner-up in two categories and was commended for six categories in the annual regional awards ceremony, which honours 29 categories and holds an international judging panel. Nearly 1,400 entries were submitted this year.

"This is a remarkable achievement. It's tremendous recognition for the quality of work being created by the DNA production team and our production partners," Tom Keaveny, executive vice president and managing director, Discovery Networks Asia, said.

Winning categories include Discovery Channel's Born Again Buddhists, which won top prize for ‘Best Cinematography' and ‘Best Direction', and Discovery Travel & Living's Bobby Chinn, who walked away with ‘Best Entertainment Presenter' award for World Café Asia - Hanoi. The ‘Best Editing' award was given to Five Star Insider - Seven Seas Cruise.

The network received a record-breaking 17 nominations for awards in 10 categories - the highest for any broadcaster this year as well as topping its previous record of 11 nominations last year.

The second biggest winners are National Geographic Channel and MTV Japan. National Geographic won two categories - ‘Best Natural History & Wildlife Programme' for Wild Dog Diaries as well as ‘Best One-hour Documentary Programme' for Super Cells. MTV Japan also went home two wins with ‘Best Entertainment Programme' for MTV Jammed: Angel Aki and ‘Best Music Programme' for MTV Unplugged: Tomoyasu Hotel.

Locally, MediaCorp TV Singapore was awarded ‘Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year'.