Coveted Channel of the Year award among eight prizes
BBC3 was the runaway winner at this year’s Broadcast Digital Awards with eight gongs, including being named Channel of the Year for the second year running.
The online youth channel beat stablemate BBC4, E4, Comedy Central UK, Beano and Sky Atlantic to the top prize and was also named Best Factual and Best Entertainment Channel.
The judges praised the depth and breadth of its output, from comedies This Country, People Just Do Nothing and The Young Offenders to documentaries Drugsland and Life And Death Row: The Mass Execution.
BBC3’s online reach for 16-34s hit 7.9% at the end of last year, more than double what it was when the channel was taken online-only in 2016.
BBC3 shows scooped prizes in three of this year’s new categories.
Left Bank’s recently recommissioned comedy Pls Like (pictured) was named Best Short-Form Comedy, while Shotglass Media won Best Short-Form Format for Eating With My Ex.
Best Short-Form Documentary went to BBC3’s in-house team for Ambulance: Difficult Labour.
Channel controller Damian Kavanagh said: “It’s been an amazing two years at BBC Three where we’ve achieved lots of growth and commissioned lots of incredible programmes that have resonated with our audience.
”From the brilliant commissioning and acquisition teams, writers, Indies and the talent, both in front and behind the camera, these awards are testament to the great work we do together and we look forward to creating more with you in the future.”
New categories accounted for a third of the 21 awards given out at this year’s awards, which took place on 6 July at The Brewery in London.
C4’s Last Words, from Green Rock and Little Dot Studios, won Best Short-Form drama, while MTV Pride was awarded Best Digital Support for a Strand, Channel or Genre.
Sky cleaned up in the scripted categories with a Best Comedy Programme prize for Sprout Pictures and Green Door’s In The Long Run (Sky 1) and a Best Drama Programme win for World Productions’ Save Me (Sky Atlantic).
Elsewhere, ITV2’s Love Island won Best Entertainment Programme, while Beano Studios took home two prizes, edging out four BBC efforts to win Best Children’s Digital Content and beating the likes of BBC3 and Barcroft TV to be named Best Original Web Channel.
Full list of winners can be found at https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcast-digital-awards/winners
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