ETV Kannada Sangeet Samman Honours the Luminaries of Kannada Music Industry

Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Monday, July 15, 2013 — (Business Wire India) — Viacom18 group, one of India’s largest media conglomerates, recently launched its new business division – Integrated Network Solutions (INS) which offers multiple brand solutions catering to the diverse needs of advertisers with varied marketing objectives. INS conceives and delivers strategic, creative solutions that helps leverage the Network’s media assets and expertise from both creative and business perspective.

‘ETV Kannada SANGEET SAMMAN’ is the new property introduced by Viacom 18 LIVE, a subdivision under Integrated Network Solutions. The award show is an effort to acknowledge the hard work put behind the soulful tunes in our everyday life by the talented and legendary musicians by honouring them with these awards. It has also been created with a motive to celebrate talents across the city, beyond cinema and bring them to the fore.

The awards night was filled with enchanting music and glorious accolades as ETV Kannada Sangeet Samman honoured the stalwarts of the Kannada music fraternity in presence of Vani Jairam, Ravichandran, V Harikrishna, Sudeep, Jayanthi, Dorai Bhagavan, Upendra, KS Chitra, TN Seetaram and many others present at the award show.

The Show was hosted by Vijay Prakash & Shwetha Chengappa. There were some mesmerising musical performances by K S Chitra, Vijay Prakash MD Pallavi, Arjun Janya & dance performances by Vijay Raghavendra, Gurukiran, Priyanka Upendra & among others.

The jury members for the awards were eminent personalities like Pravin Godkhindi – renowned flautist and Music Composer, B Jayashree – renowned folk musician and theater artist, K Kalyan-music director lyricist. The awards were given across various categories which included Best Singer – Male (Film), Best Singer – Female (Film), Best Music Director, Best Album of the Year (Film), Best Dance Song, Best Upcoming Male Singer, Best Upcoming Female Singer, Best Upcoming Music Director, Best Sound Production, Best Lyricist.

ETV Kannada Sangeet Samman is a jury cum viewer’s choice award wherein the Jury initially shortlisted the top five nominations across categories for audience voting and the audiences nominated one person from each category for the prestigious Sangeet Samman Award.

Speaking about this new property, Mr. Ravish Kumar, Executive Vice President, Viacom18 & Business Head – Regional Channels said “Karnataka is filled with a rich cultural history and musicality is inherent in almost every Kannada household. Hence, ETV Kannada Sangeet Samman is our humble effort to acknowledge and celebrate the culture of music in this state. It is the spirit of Sangeet Samman that ETV Kannada is proud to be associated with and it is our constant endeavour as a channel to bring to our audiences the best that we have to offer in terms of shows, concepts, films and entertainment. We are sure that Sangeet Samman has been a thrilling musical extravaganza worth experiencing. “

Mr. Jaideep Singh, Sr. Vice President and Business Head – INS, Viacom18 Pvt. Ltd. was quoted, “The response we have got for the Sangeet Samman awards has been overwhelming. We hope to do this every year from now on as we have created this property to honour the exceptional musical talent responsible for spreading music in our life. ETV Kannaada Sangeet Samman initiative will also encourage and recognize new musical talent. This is part of our planned and a thought out strategy wherein our LIVE division will build live properties in music and entertainment space for all our brands and media assets.”

ABOUT VIACOM 18 LIVE:

Viacom18 LIVE is a subdivision under INS whose mandate is to create LIVE properties in Music and Entertainment space for all the brands of Viacom18. MTV VMAI and EMERGE were the first to initiate this division under Youth and English Cluster. Sangeet Samman Kannada marks the launch of Kids and Regional Cluster of Viacom18 LIVE. The other Division of INS is BE Viacom18 which works majorly on building broadcast properties on Viacom18 Network Level leveraging all its media assets including Viacom18 Motion Pictures and deliver clients and brands partnerships and solutions on a strategic level. Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd. is a 50/50 joint venture operation in India between Viacom Inc and the Network18 Group, (with interests in television, internet, filmed entertainment, mobile content & allied businesses, comprising brands like CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, Newswire18, moneycontrol.com, CNN-IBN, IBN 7, Homeshop18 and E18 amongst others). Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd. operates six general entertainment channels – MTV, Nickelodeon, Vh1, COLORS, SONIC, Comedy Central and film business through Viacom18 Motion Pictures, that produces, acquires and distributes Hindi films, This apart, Viacom18 also runs Viacom’s consumer products division in India.