AIBs 2009 - the celebration gets closer

The 2009 AIBs - the fifth annual celebration of excellence in TV, radio and cross-media broadcasting - draw ever closer.

With a great number of entries this year, our short-listing team worked overtime to assess which of the tremendous breadth and depth of entries should go forward to our international judging panel. Now it's up to some key people in countries as diverse as Finland, Australia, Ghana, the USA, South Africa, Germany, the UAE and the UK to decide which productions deserve the ultimate accolade from the AIB.

This year our awards evening takes place on 4 November and we're guaranteed a great turnout with people travelling from all over the world to join our annual Awards event. Have you booked your places yet? Go online at www.aib.org.uk and reserve your seats for a fabulous dinner and great networking.

Awards shortlisting

We've been hard at work over the past few weeks devising the short-list for the 2009 AIBs - the international media excellence awards.

The AIBs are a celebration of the very best programming across news, current affairs, features, and specialist genres, particularly focusing on programmes that work across borders.

We've had a great crop of entries this year - slightly down on last year's record figure - but still a great number from broadcasters and production houses throughout the world - more than 30 countries are represented in this completely non-commercial competition.

The award entries are now on their way to our international judging panel - our judges are spread throughout the world to ensure that we gain a range of perspectives on the programmes submitted. From Pakistan to Ghana, South Africa to Germany, our judges will look at and listen to the work submitted and send their results and comments to us in time for the awards to be made, ready for presentation on 4 November at LSO St Luke's in London.

Join us there - you can book your place online at www.aib.org.uk - but don't delay as last year's Awards was a sell-out and we had to turn people away (that's happened two year's running now - and this is only year five of the AIBs!).

Sourcebook gets bigger

AIB is in touch with more than 25,000 people in the world's electronic media industry and for some years we have been helping others in the industry to find out who's who by publishing a directory of broadcasting.

From small beginnings in the early part of the century, the AIB directory is now a comprehensive guide to the world's media - and the new edition is in the final stages of preparation. We've rebranded this year's directory as the Global Broadcasting Sourcebook and it will be available from the beginning of September in both print and PDF formats.

We're working in partnership with colleagues at Broadband TV News to compile this year's Sourcebook, with a great deal of new information about cable, satellite and IPTV to augment the already extensive data about broadcasters in territories throughout the world.

More than 8,000 contacts will appear in the Sourcebook, each one checked by the research team at the AIB's headquarters and our colleagues at BTN. We're also including analysis of selected markets, and background information that will be of use to people needing to know about broadcasting in different markets.

So whether it's information about Lao National TV (yes, we're in touch with executives in that organisation) or Deutsche Welle, TV2 in Denmark or Fastweb in Italy (yes, we know people in those companies) that you need, this Sourcebook is for you.

The new Sourcebook will be distributed free-of-charge to members of the AIB as part of their membership benefits. People outside the AIB membership can order their copy online here.

AIBs go up a gear

The 2009 AIBs officially close for entries on Friday but it seems that we'll have to extend the deadline by a few days. That's because the phone's ringing off the hook at AIB headquarters with broadcasters from all over the world pleading for a few more days in which to get us their work.

We're happy to oblige, even if it means we're going to be up against it, time-wise, when it comes to shortlisting. However, we'll manage and the international panel of judges will get plenty of time to evaluate the shortlisted entries and decide which entries are worthy of a 2009 AIB.

With material from RTHK, the UK's Channel 4, independent producers in the Middle East, RFE/RL, NDTV, Russia Today, 6 News, Belsat and many more, this competition will once again celebrate success in broadcasting all over the world.

Want to enter your material? You still can - check out the awards details at www.aib.org.uk and then let us know if you can't make Friday's deadline. We'll do our best to accommodate you, provided you don't need a whole month to compile your entry!

AIB searching for the best

It's that time of year again when the AIB headquarters is inundated with courier deliveries from all over the world - all entries for the annual AIBs, our international media excellence awards.

The AIB launched the AIBs five years ago at the request of its members and the competition has grown significantly to be an important highlight in the international media industry's calendar.

The reason for the acceptance and success of the AIBs is, I believe, down to the fact that they are a real, independently-judged, truly international competition that celebrates the best talent, programme-making, news coverage, and documentary-making in the world. We're not restricted to entries in English - after all, 90% of the world's population doesn't have English as a first language. We're non-commercial: although we have sponsors who support the competition, they have no influence over the results. We look at both cross-border and domestic productions, enabling practitioners in the industry to see why it's important to have the ability to contrast and compare programmes made in different parts of the world for different audiences.

As I travel the world, I've met a whole range of inspiring people in broadcasting and the wider media industry and I know that there's much work out there that cries out for recognition but is often not highlighted to the rest of the industry. That's what the 2009 AIBs will be trying to correct.

So, look out your best work and submit it to the 2009 AIBs - more at www.aibawards.com. And see you in London on 4 November for our gala celebration evening!

International broadcasting essential in Iran

The events of the past few days in Iran have demonstrated the essential need for international broadcasting. The newly-launched BBC Persian TV service, and longer-established VoA TV in Persian, have been key to ensuring the flow of information about events in Iran to people living there while domestic media - IRIB - has been reporting very little about developments.

What's interesting is that Press TV - the English-language TV news channel operated by Iran - has been somewhat more free in its coverage of events, reporting things that IRIB's domestic broadcaster has simply ignored. Press TV is located in a different building several kilometers from IRIB's compound in Tehran (where I was prohibited from taking a photo of a flagpole on my last visit there!) and has some level of autonomy.

Radio remains important, with Radio Farda (part of RFE/RL), DW Persian and others all broadcasting to Iran and maintaining the flow of news and information.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have all come into their own during the week, and are likely to remain crucial as events develop in Iran.

Cannes...miserable weather, miserable numbers

The weather does not help lift spirits here at MIP TV with rain tumbling from leaden skies. Inside, I have seen many stands which have been deserted by their owners. Some I have talked to say that despite having booked meetings over the past few weeks, many people have cancelled as they are simply not coming to this year`s programme market.

It is becoming a market of ad hoc meetings - of course, that has always been the case but now it is more the norm than ever before.

However, the conference has been interesting. This morning the keynotes from Niklas Savander of Nokia and Jeffrey Cole of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future were inspiring. Cole provided a whole range of new examples of how TV is changing for the future - something I will analyse for AIB members next week.

I am starting to spread the word about the 2009 AIB Media Excellence Awards - the AIBs. Getting good feedback from a number of broadcasters and production companies. Not the case with TRT, however, which has a big stand but no one seems to understand about entering programmes they have made into international competitions. Draw your own conclusions.

Now I have to go and brave the weather (and avoid the numerous umbrella sellers outside the Palais) and go and meet Middle East media executives on the Syrian stand.