News Broadcasting
ABU Prizes 2004 TV finalists announced
MUMBAI: A five-member pre-selection jury for the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Prizes 2004 competition has announced the finalists in four TV categories and the nominees for a new Special Jury Award introduced this year.
A total of 88 television entries from 36 organisations were screened over a three-day pre-selection process in the second week of August in Kuala Lumpur.
Twenty-five entries will compete at the final round of judging in the Drama, Entertainment, Children and Youth and News and Documentary categories, while five programmes will vie for the new Special Jury Award.
Entries for the Sports (TV) category will be judged by a separate jury by correspondence.
The pre-selection jury, chaired by Dr Nawiyah Che Lah of RTM-Malaysia, comprised Jun Ogawa of TBS-Japan, Arman Karabayev of Khabar Agency-Kazakhstan, Kim Kyung Hee of KBS-Rep. of Korea and Erol Eldem of TRT-Turkey.
A total of 163 television and radio entries from 52 organisations were submitted for this year’s competition – an increase of almost 50 per cent over last year’s submissions. The encouraging figures are seen as a reflection of the ABU members’ growing interest in this international competition.
“I am delighted and impressed to see this improvement in the ABU prizes. The number of entries is much higher than last year’s, and the quality of the programmes has risen noticeably, especially for Drama and News and Documentary,” said Dr Nawiyah Che Lah, who has served as jury member for six ABU Prize competitions.
The final judging for the ABU Prizes 2004 (Radio and TV) will be held on 20-21September, followed by the award ceremony on 25 September in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in conjunction with the 41st ABU general assembly.
The TV finalists for the ABU Prizes 2004 are:
Drama (6 programmes)
1Blade Heart (TVB-Hong Kong)
2 Bunshiro and Fuku – Episode 2: Partings (NHK-Japan)
3 Waiting for the First Train (KBS-Rep. of Korea)
4 Separation (SBS-Rep. of Korea)
5 The Insiders Guide to Happiness – Episode 6 (TVNZ-New Zealand)
6 A Bird Flew from the Nest (TRT-Turkey)
Entertainment (5 programmes)
1 The Fountain of Trivia (Fuji TV-Japan)
2 Can You Speak English Special – Samurai English (NHK-Japan)
3 Korea, Korea – Meet The Pyongyang (EBS-Rep. of Korea)
4 Love House (MBC-Rep. of Korea)
5 Explorace – The Extreme Journey (TV3-Malaysia)
Children and Youth (7 programmes)
1 Tom & the Slice of Bread with Strawberry Jam & Honey (ARD/SWR-Germany)
2 Preschool – Learn to Fly – Runaway Ice Cream (RTHK-Hong Kong)
3 A Rebel at His Alma Mater (NAB/HBC-Japan)
4 Electricity (KA-Kazakhstan)
5 Science Battle (EBS-Rep. of Korea)
6 My Brother (KBS-Rep. of Korea)
7 The Apple Tree Scholarship (MBC-Rep. of Korea)
News and Documentary (7 programmes)
1 Foreign Correspondent – Japanese Justice (ABC-Australia)
2 Metropolis – The Power of Cities: Carthage (ZDF-Germany)
3 The Man Who Fought Against SARS (NHK-Japan)
4 Family Bond – Give Us Back Our Father! (TBS-Japan)
5 The Small Corner (KA-Kazakhstan)
6 The World Unseen – The Microscopic World (EBS-Rep. of Korea)
7 The Children Lived Happily Ever After (KBS-Rep. of Korea)
Special Jury Award (5 programmes)
Ø Tiny Statues, Big Dreams (BBS-Bhutan)
Ø Raging Flood (Fiji TV-Fiji)
Ø And Blind Said (NTRC-Kyrgyzstan)
Ø One Day of Young Priest (MRTV-Mongolia)
Ø Rhythm of Ruhuna (SLRC-Sri Lanka)
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
