EbonyLife TV hosts industry’s brightest at Emmy Awards judging event

LAGOS, NIGERIA (2015); EbonyLife TV, Africa’s first Global Black entertainment and lifestyle network, has successfully hosted the Semi-Final Round of judging of the 2015 International Emmy® awards.

In acknowledgement of EbonyLife TV’s relevance in the continent’s media and entertainment space, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded the channel the right to host the Semi-Final round of judging of the Emmy® awards as an integral part of the Emmy® Awards judging process which culminates in the final announcement of programme nominees at MIPCOM in Cannes, France, on October 5, 2015.

The judging event which held recently at the Eko Hotel & Suites in conjunction with the Academy, was a rare and exclusive constellation of some of the best and brightest minds in the TV & Film industry, all participating as jurors in the Telenovela programme category whose prestigious judging the Global Black channel hosted.

Judges included Academy member, Executive Chairman and CEO, EbonyLife TV, Mo Abudu; CEO of Mainframe Productions, Tunde Kelani; Director of Scripted Programming, EbonyLife TV, Quinty Pillay; Managing Director of Brickwall Communications, Mahmood Ali-Balogun; Managing Partner, Biola Alabi Consulting, Biola Alabi; and Programme Advisor, BFI London Film Festival, Keith Shiri.

Also included were Executive Producer and CEO, DV Worx, Femi Odugbemi; Director, Producer, Casting Director at Sunbow Productions Limited, Tope Oshin-Ogun. Managing Director, Golden Effects Productions, Kunle Afolayan; Managing Director, Royal Roots Productions, Gregory Odutayo; CEO, Unique Sisi Ologe Productions Ltd, Ireti Doyle; and Managing Director, Mindworks CDC, Yinka Ogun.

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In this special role as host of the Semi-Final round of judging of the Emmy® awards, EbonyLife TV has therefore recorded yet another significant milestone in its attainment of global reckoning and reputation as one of the prime and most influential media powerhouses on the continent.

According to Mo Abudu, “EbonyLife TV is very proud to host this co-branded event, the Semi-Final round of judging of the International Emmy® awards with the Academy, screening some of the best TV programmes from around the world with some of Africa’s finest and internationally acclaimed filmmakers as jurors. We are excited to be contributing to the Academy’s mission of recognizing excellence in the global television industry.”

Speaking for the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Mr. Nathaniel Brendel, Emmy® Judging Director, said, “We thank our member, Mo Abudu and her wonderful team for hosting a Semi-Final Judging event for the first time this year, in Lagos. The support of our members is an integral part of the success of the competition worldwide and we are delighted to have included Nigeria as one of the host countries this year.”

About EbonyLife TV
EbonyLife TV, Africa’s first Global Black Entertainment and Lifestyle network, was launched on the 1st July 2013, to a pan-African audience, by a license agreement with Multichoice (DStv) Africa, Africa’s largest Pay TV platform. The channel is distributed to 49 African countries, including South and Southern African. Ranked as one of the most watched channels on the DStv platform, EbonyLife TV is focused at the African youth, aged 18 to 34, annually providing over 1000 hours of premium, original, and homegrown Anglo-African entertainment programming ranging from Talk, Reality, Comedy, Drama, Factual, among others. Distribution wise, EbonyLife TV also sits on the Talk Talk and Lebara Play platforms in the UK and it has equally signed agreements to distribute to Canada via Ethnic Channels Group Limited, with ongoing discussions with Virgin Media in the UK as well as other platforms in the UAE, the Caribbean and the US. In partnership with the Walt Disney Company the channel has produced Desperate Housewives Africa, based on the multiple award winning ABC Television drama hit series, Desperate Housewives.

About the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a membership based organization comprised of leading media and entertainment figures from over 60 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of television including internet, mobile and technology. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the prestigious International Emmy® Awards and International Emmy® Kids Awards Ceremonies held in New York, The International Digital Emmy® Awards at MIPTV and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy® World Television Festival and Panels on substantive industry topics. The Academy was chartered with a mission to recognize excellence in television produced outside of the United States and it presents The International Emmy® Awards in the following twenty categories: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actress; Best Performance by an Actor; Current Affairs; Comedy; Digital Program: Children & Young People; Digital Program: Fiction; Digital Program: Non-Fiction; Documentary; Drama Series; Kids: Preschool; Kids: Animation; Kids: Factual; Kids: Non-Scripted Entertainment; Kids: Series; Kids: TV Movie/Mini-Series News; Non-Scripted Entertainment; Telenovela; TV Movie/Mini-Series. For more information go to www.iemmys.tv. The International Academy also recognizes US primetime programming produced 50% or more in non-English languages, with a new category added to the 2014 International Emmy® Awards competition.