Firstly there should have been a big award to Brian Seth Hurst for being a major part of making the International Interactive Emmy Awards happen – there have been far too many parochial, slightly sycophantic national interactive awards over the past 8 years or so. These awards, regardless of the quality of the projects, the general isolation of the ceremony (read: not integrated yet into mainstream media awards) or the relatively small scale of the event – are truly a step change. The international perspective, judges and nominees, combined with the broad scope – from individual interactive formats, pioneer awards, interactive services and channels.
The event was well organised and joyously and irreverently hosted by Desperate HousewivesÂ’ Roger Bart, who knew a thing or two about interactive services – it seemed. Mark Burnett also strutted his stuff as a presenter. I was sat next to a great ambassador of interactive futures, Dr. Simone Emmelius – manager of ZDF Vision, one of GermanyÂ’s two public service broadcasters and it was great catching up with her. Also an old BBC colleague Nic Cohen (BBCÂ’s 24/7 commissioner) and soon to be LAMP mentor and all round web 2.0 pioneer David Jensen shared our table – which we quickly found out to be the Interactive Programme Judges table. Without giving too much away 😉 my scores were well placed and the user driven, organic ‘CultÂ’ show took the premier award. Their table was next to ours and it exploded in true jubilant French fashion at the announcement. Both Sky and BBC were placed in a couple of categories but we, the judges were I believe looking for services more forward looking and audience embracing – both Sky and BBC entries have been pushing similar formats for a good three or four years. The other two awards went to Hello D (S. Korea) for interactive service and the granddaddy of Broadband TV, Video Networks (London) for Interactive Channel – well done to Roger Lynch for that.
I do not think it is who wins the first few years of a new International Award, but that it becomes recognised as the one to get and it keeps going from strength to strength. Again thanks to the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences – there are many minor awards around the world for so-called innovative services, but as progressive media becomes mass audience and mainstream the enormous effort in reaching tens of millions rather than hundreds should be congratulated. I am sure the BBC and others will win with more innovative services in the coming years, a Jamie Kane with major TV component for instance would have gone down well. Perhaps Gold Rush will be there next year – Mark Burnett was here as I said presenting the Pioneer Prize to his mate Jonathan Millar (CEO of AOL), well deserved because as we know (and were told on at least 20 occasions) that Live8 has changed the landscape of TV, the internet and mass entertainment.
The three categories strongly suggest that it should snugly fit into the larger TV EmmyÂ’s. I also think that there could be several other categories – for example Interactive Programme could cover everything from participatory and user generated TV through to game, documentary, news and sport genre – but there is always next year!
Posted by Gary Hayes ©2006
