Pyramedia production ‘Prince of Poets’ has won an award from the Association for International Broadcasting in the Best TV creative feature category. The third season of the highly successful poetry television competition ended in August with a contestant from Syria winning the 1 Million Dirham prize and the prestigious title of the ‘Prince of Poets.’ Previous winners have hailed from the UAE and Mauritania, representing the popularity of the show across the Arab world.
Said Nashwa Al Ruwaini, CEO of Pyramedia, “I’d like to thank the Association for International Broadcasting for this award, it is an honour to receive it and be recognized in such a prestigious industry with talents stretched across the world. The success and popularity of Prince of Poets as a reality TV show in the Arab world could not have been achieved without a dedicated team and the audience’s love of poetry. We at Pyramedia hope that we continue to be able to produce programming that will focus on the rich culture, heritage and tradition of Arabs and present them on a global stage.”
The AIB International Media Excellence Awards 2009 were held in London yesterday night and was hosted by Bloomberg TV anchor Francine Lacqua. The awards showcase the best talent, the best programming and the most innovative technology across television, radio, online and mobile and a judging panel of professionals in the broadcast and media industries worldwide chooses the AIB winners. Pyramedia is the only Arab production house that was shortlisted for the AIB’s 2009 and was featured among broadcasters from countries around the world including the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Luxembourg, New Zealand, UK and USA.
Nashwa was also one of the top finalists in the International TV Personality category alongside Barkha Dutt, group editor of English news at New Delhi Television. Another notable woman, Zeinab Badawi of the BBC World News was the winner in the competitive category.
‘Prince of Poets’ is a classical Arabic poetry TV competition broadcast on Abu Dhabi TV that was created in an effort to encourage Arab youth to excel in an artistic area that extends back to the Pre-Islamic era. The show, a knockout live TV competition sees 35 aspiring poets chosen by the celebrity panel of judges during the audition phase, compete on stage in front of a 2000 strong live theatre audience and millions of viewers at home for 10 weeks. Poets are judged by a mixture of the judging panel, live theatre audience voting and SMS voting. The winner of the competition at the end of the ten weeks receives the prestige title of ‘The Prince of Poets’ and a cash prize of 1 Million Dirhams.
Prince of Poets is held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE’s Armed Forces and is produced by Pyramedia for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage which heads various cultural initiatives within the UAE.
