Singapore, December 2 & 3, 2015 - When the nominations for the 20th Asian Television Awards (ATA) were announced, Beach House Pictures (BHP) set another record for the consecutive year running. It scored 11 nominations for its shows and people, one ahead of last year’s total. BHP’s sister company NHNZ also had two nominations for season three of Abalone Wars. For the Best Documentary Series it competed against BHP’s Wild City – Hidden Wild. In the Best Director category NHNZ’s Max Quinn was nominated for Abalone Wars.
In the Best Natural History or Wildlife Programme category, Beach House was nominated for Wild City – Hidden Wild. Series Detox! and Nick Baker’s Eco Malaysia went up against one another twice, in the Best Infotainment Programme and Best Entertainment Presenter/Host cateogries. The Yunnan episode of Detox! had a nomination for Best Lifestyle Programme.
Two BHP shows were nominated in the Best Sports Programme category: Nanjing Calling – The Madwheelers and Singapore’s Finest. Its Zoomoo’s Got Brains went up against series two of Australian show Hi-5 House for Best Preschool Programme.
The winners were announced at the awards gala ceremonies in Singapore, and was broadcast to an estimated audience of 300 million across Asia. BHP emerged victorious in the Best Sports category with Singapore’s Finest and also the Best Entertainment Presenter category with Eco Malaysia’s Nick Baker. Wild City, Zoomoo’s Got Brains, Bobby Chinn and FTFM Nanjing Calling all received Highly Commended awards.
This year’s Asian TV Awards ran from 2nd to 3rd December as part of the Singapore Media Festival (26 November – 6 December). Shifting from a primarily Chinese focus on its entertainment programme in recent years, the event offered up Indonesian World Music Award winner Anggun, K-Pop girl group Secret and Swedish boy band JTR.