New Emmy competitor: Paley Center announces TV awards show to debut in 2012 in New York

Paley Center says new TV awards show set for 2012

LOS ANGELES — The Emmys aren’t the only big TV-honors game anymore.

The Paley Center for Media announced plans Wednesday for an awards telecast that will debut in spring 2012 in New York. It was developed with the help of TV, advertising and new-media executives.

The center said the new awards will take a “fresh and distinctive approach” that involves the public in the selection process and reaches beyond TV by celebrating video across all platforms — an apparent reference to online and mobile distribution.

Details regarding the awards categories, as well as the nominations and voting process remain under discussion, Paley Center President and CEO Pat Mitchell said in a statement.

The show is planned for May to coincide with the New York “upfronts” during which TV networks present their fall schedules to prospective advertisers.

The new awards come after several years of declining or stagnant ratings for the prime-time Emmy Awards, which aired its 62nd ceremony last month. An attempt to overhaul the show by reducing the more than two-dozen categories presented during the telecast failed after guild and other industry opposition.

Negotiations are in progress between the the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the four major broadcast networks that have been airing the Emmys on a rotating basis. The current eight-year contract with ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC expires this year.

A Paley spokewoman said which network would carry the new awards ceremony has yet to be determined.

Other awards recognize achievements in both TV and movies, including the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards, but the Emmys were alone among major awards focused solely on television.

In March, the Paley Center announced a committee to explore creation of an awards show. It was headed by Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television, Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of the Fox Networks Group, and Dick Lippin, chairman and chief executive of the Lippin Group, a public relations and marketing firm.

“We have already received considerable interest from television networks and advertisers, and now that we have announced the time and location of our first show we will begin right away to translate this interest into substantive discussions,” Mosko said in a statement.

The center said it intends to merge its annual New York gala fundraising event with the 2012 awards telecast. One or more of its new awards may be presented at its 2011 gala fundraiser, which has usually been held in winter.

The nonprofit center, located in New York and Los Angeles, said its mission is to foster discussion about the artistic and social significance of TV, radio and new media among industry professionals and the public.

Online:

www.paleycenter.org

www.emmys.tv

(This version corrects Web address for Emmys.)