PARIS: The winners of the sixth Hot Bird TV Awards were announced a few days ago at a ceremony in Venice. Organised by Eutelsat and Eurovisioni, and sponsored by Alcatel Space, Arianespace and Astrium, the awards each year recognise excellence of satellite broadcasting of thematic television.
The winners were selected by a jury of European television journalists. They met last month in Rome to view a record 120 thematic channels broadcasting in 13 languages. They were separated into eight categories: News, Cinema & Fiction, Culture, Documentaries, Kids, Music, Sport, and Various.
The jury rewarded the channels that they consider displayed particular originality and quality in their programming and presentation.

The winners were:

Category    Winners
Children's    Minimax (Poland), Rai Sat Ragazzi (Italy)
Cinema & Fiction    Sky Cinema Author (Italy), TCM (France)
Culture    Rai Nettuno Sat (Italy)
Documentaries    Grandes Documentales (Spain), Voyage (France)
Music    Canal Clasico (Spain)
News    Rai News 24 (Italy)
Other    Public Sénat (France)
Sport    ESPN Classic Sport (France)