The Royal Television Society (RTS) launches its 2019 Programme Awards for the Northern Ireland creative industries
Kieran Doherty, Chair of RTS NI said: “It’s hard to believe it’s just five years since we announced our first Northern Ireland Programme Awards, which were set up to recognise the amazing content being produced in Northern Ireland. But what a five years it has been!
“Back in 2015, Game of Thrones was making its 5th series here, Line of Duty was filming on the streets of Belfast, Lily’s Driftwood Bay was in its infancy and Derry Girls was still just an idea inside the amazing brain of Lisa McGee and now one of the longest running quiz shows in the UK, BBC’s flagship Mastermind, is relocating to Belfast.
“So it’s now more important than ever before for the RTS NI to recognise and highlight the exceptional people working in Northern Ireland’s creative sector as well as celebrating the amazing growth of the industry over the past number of years.”
Applications for entries to this year’s Awards are open from Monday August 5th and will close on Friday 30th August. To qualify for entry, all entries must have been first transmitted or made available on an On Demand service between 7th August 2018 and 26th July 2019 except for Interactive Entertainment which should have been released between these dates. All entries may be submitted by broadcasters, companies or individuals based in or working in Northern Ireland. Further details can be found on https://rts.org.uk/region/northern-ireland/awards
The 2019 Award categories are:
- Scripted Comedy
- Entertainment
- Features and / or Factual Entertainment
- Specialist Factual
- Documentary
- Current Affairs
- News Coverage
- Drama
- Children’s and / or Animation
- Interactive Entertainment
- Original Music Score
- Brian Waddell Award for Outstanding Contribution (to the local television and film industry in NI)
The RTS NI has partnered with BBC Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen, Channel 4 and UTV for these prestigious awards. Judging in each category will be carried out independently by an experienced internal jury with winners being announced at the special awards ceremony at The Mac, Belfast on Thursday 7th November.
