A multicultural Aussie Rules television panel show has won the prestigious Antenna Award for excellence in community television.
The National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters’ Council’s (NEMBC) “Multicultural AFL Football TV Panel Show” won the award in the Best Culturally and/or Linguistically Diverse Program on Australian Community television.
The show, which was launched in 2018, includes on its multicultural panel of presenters George Grosios, Vanessa Gatica, Harbir Singh, Kang, and Fouad Andrawos.
The show which is produced by NEMBC Media airs on prime-time television, C31 TV in Melbourne and Geelong, as well as on C44 in Adelaide, and on Aurora Foxtel TV.
The program also generates weekly AFL Diversity News Podcasts in eight languages that are broadcast by 32 multicultural community radio stations. Another spin-off is an English radio podcast on the Community Radio Network (CRN) satellite service including the Diversity language AFL live match-day broadcasts and broadcast commentator training programs.
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The programme’s sponsors and supporters include C31 in whose studio the show is recorded and edited, the Australian Football League and the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF).
NEMBC MEDIA CEO, Russell Anderson said: “The Multicultural AFL Footy Show went to air with a Diverse cast completely new to TV. It was the love of Aussie Rules and their enthusiasm to highlight our national game to Diverse cultures, that our producer/director, Fiv Antoniou and our presenters, Vanessa Gatica, Harbir Singh Kang, George Grosios and Fouad Andrawos made the quality program popular, surpassing all our expectations – The NEMBC’s AFL program will return better than ever in 2022 for a fifth season.”