8th Annual Astra Award Winners

8th Annual Astra Award Winners

Subscription televisions finest were honoured at the 8th Annual ASTRA Awards ceremony hosted by Sky News political reporter David Speers at Sydney's State Theatre on Thursday June 24th. The LifeStyle Channel took the coveted Channel of the Year award as well as the two public vote categories. The channel's home makeover show Selling Houses Australia picked up two awards, Most Outstanding Lifestyle Program following on from the win in 2009 and the Favourite Program award which was voted for by the viewing public.

The second viewer's choice award Favourite Personality went to Selling Houses Australia host Andrew Winter who also took the Most Outstanding Performance by a Presenter award.

Showcase came away with three awards. The stars of the drama series Tangle, Ben Mendelsohn and Justine Clarke were awarded Most Outstanding Performance by an Actor - Male and Most Outstanding Performance by an Actor - Female. The Best New Talent award, which is a new category this year, went to Satisfaction's Camille Keenan.UKTV's two part thriller False Witness was awarded the Most Outstanding Drama.ASTRA CEO Petra Buchanan said "the variety of original Australian productions only available of subscription TV were centre stage last night. ASTRA Awards were hotly contested this year with all but two of the 17 awards going to local productions and Australian talent. It's a real demonstration of the powerful content that Australians have come to love and expect on subscription TV."

The Weather Channel won in two categories for Most Outstanding News Program or Coverage and Most Outstanding Documentary.

FOX8's Australia's Next Top Model took the award for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program which it also won in 2007. The MAX and Channel [V] co-produced Sound Relief won Most Outstanding Music Program or Coverage while Nickelodeon's Camp Orange: The Final Frontier took the award for Most Outstanding Children's Program or Event.

Sky News' Kieran Gilbert was awarded Most Outstanding Performance by a Broadcast Journalist, an honour which last year went to host David Speers. An additional new category for 2010, Most Outstanding Use of Innovation in Programming went to In the Womb: Extreme Animals on National Geographic Channel.

Full Winners List
Best New Talent: Camille Keenan, Satisfaction Season 3- Showcase
Most Outstanding Documentary: Forecast For Disaster: The Weather BehindBlack Saturday -The Weather Channel
Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program: Australia's Next Top Model Series 5- Fox8
Most Outstanding Performance By A Presenter: Andrew Winter, Selling Houses Australia- The LifeStyle Channel
Most Outstanding Use Of Innovation In Programming: In The Womb: Extreme Animals,National Geographic
Most Outstanding Performance By A Broadcast Journalist: Kieran Gilbert, SKY News Australian News
Most Outstanding Performance By An Actor - Male: Ben Mendelsohn -Tangle, Showcase
Most Outstanding Music Program or Coverage: Sound Relief, Channel [V] & MAX
Most Outstanding Lifestyle Program: Selling Houses Australia - Season 2, The LifeStyle Channel
Most Outstanding Performance By An Actor - Female Justine Clarke - Tangle, Showcase
Favourite Program Selling Houses Australia - Season 2 The Lifestyle Channel
Most Outstanding News Program or Coverage: The Weather Channel Black SaturdayCoverage: 4th-8th Feb 2009, The Weather Channel
Most Outstanding Drama: False Witness, UKTV

Favourite Personality: Andrew Winter, The LifeStyle Channel
Most Outstanding Children's Program or Event: Camp Orange: The Final Frontier Nickelodeon
Most Outstanding Sports Program or Coverage: Monday Night Football (2009 NRL Season Round 21: Wests Tigers v Manly Warringah Sea Eagles) FOX Sports
Channel Of The Year: The LifeStyle Channel

Now in its 8th year, the ASTRA Awards recognise the wealth of talent and programming that fuels the subscription television industry in Australia. A panel of subscription television executives judged 15 award categories; two categories were decided by public vote via sms, online and AUSTAR and FOXTEL's red button iTV application, and the Channel of the Year category was judged by the ASTRA Board of Directors.