MEDIA: MTV triples audience for Asia awards show

The main show together with related programming, such as the Red Carpet and the Making of MTV Asia Awards, drew 67 million viewers from the same age group in 10 countries in this region.

"ACNielsen research data on the premier telecast composition showed that more than 60 per cent of all viewers who watched the MTV Asia Awards were below 35 years old - delivering higher purity with curtailed wastage for advertisers to effectively reach their target audience," said Frank Brown, president of MTV Networks Asia.

This year's MTV Asia Awards website, which allowed the audience to pore over nominee profiles online before voting, and included trivia games, free downloads of e-cards, wallpapers, screensavers and music download, generated 62.8 million page views and 1.25 million unique visitors in the 12-week run-up to the January 24 show date. The figures represent a significant leap from 28 million page views and 780,000 unique visitors in 2002.

"An overwhelming display of participation was demonstrated through online membership (representing unique visitors) rising from 111,000 in 2002 to over 300,000 in 2003," Brown said.

The SMS voting system introduced this year drew over a million SMS votes, out of a total of 10 million votes generated through all channels.

MTV presented a total of 19 awards to artists and personalities according to votes cast by viewers from across the region.

This year's show was hosted by international superstars CoCo Lee and Shaggy at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with more than 66 artists and dancers from 12 nationalities across Asia and around the world represented on stage.

Sponsors of the awards were given different avenues to take part in the online promotions. MasterCard, for example, was branded in the section titled 'Priceless Moments' where viewers could access show and post-party pictures as well as music downloads. Nokia was branded with the online and SMS voting sections.

Toyota was branded in the award category and nominees sections. Panasonic, on the other hand, used the online component for its consumers with MP3 players to obtain free music downloads through the awards.