Announcing Nominees for the ‘MTV Australia Awards'

New Zealand
Press Release Thursday March 13, 2008

Announcing the Nominees for the ‘MTV Australia Awards 2008’

NOMINEES FOR THE NEW ZEALAND ARTIST AWARD INCLUDE ATLAS, THE CHECKS, THE MINT CHICKS, OPSHOP AND SCRIBE

INTERNATIONAL NOMINEES INCLUDE FERGIE, LUPE FIASCO, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM, THE FOO FIGHTERS AND MANY MORE

VOTING FOR NZ ARTIST AWARD NOW OPEN AT WWW.MTV.CO.NZ

STRICT EMBARGO: AUCKLAND, THURSDAY MARCH 13 2008: Kiwi artists Atlas, The Checks, The Mint Chicks, Opshop and Scribe and are in the running to take home an MTV Australia Award alongside politicians, pranksters, film stars, trouble makers, Grammy Award winners and pro-social organizations.

“It’s fantastic that the MTV Australia Awards have decided to honour New Zealand Artists by including a New Zealand Artist Award,” said Chris Keely, MTV Networks New Zealand General Manager. “As the show is syndicated to MTV around the world it will be a fantastic platform to promote New Zealand artists globally”

The newly styled awards show will allow the network to recognise people, organisations and moments alongside music that has entertained and engaged the MTV viewer over the last year. The seven new award categories will honour TV moments, personalities and organisations for Good Karma and Bad Karma Awards, Australian and New Zealand Artists, Live Performers, the ‘Remake Award’ with the eighth being the traditional ‘Music Video Of The Year Award’.

The MTV Australia Awards 2008 will feature eight live musical performances and eleven awards presented across music, film, television, sport, viewer-generated content and topical pop culture moments. The New Zealand Artist Award is a viewer voted category and Kiwis can register their vote online at www.mtv.co.nz. Voting closes Friday, April 25. Six other categories will be viewer-chosen with voting open now until April 25, 2008. The remaining three categories – favourites in sports, film/tv actor and international music act will be selected by MTV Australia as a way of acknowledging those who have had a significant influence on the Australian MTV audience and are yet to be announced.

Winners will be announced at the MTV Australia Awards on Saturday, April 26, 2008. Kiwis can be there in person by purchasing a highly coveted seat on the MTV Mile High Gig, in association with Air New Zealand. The MTV Mile High Gig departs Auckland for Sydney at 5.30pm on ANZAC day, Friday April 25. Tickets to this once in a life time experience go on sale Friday, March 14 from airnewzealand.co.nz. With last year’s MTV Mile High Gig selling out in less than 6 days (an Air New Zealand record) fans will need to get in quick to be part of the action.

The exclusive seats not only include a pre-flight gate party and mid-flight performance from Dizzee Rascal and Scribe, but passengers also receive a ‘money can't buy’ ticket to the MTV Australia Awards on Saturday, April 26. Passengers must be over 18 to be eligible for the MTVAA tickets.

The MTV Australia Awards 2008 will air exclusively on MTV, channel 60 SKY Digital, Monday, April 28 from 7pm. Further MTV Australia Awards talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

THE VIEWER VOTED CATEGORIES FOR THE ‘MTV AUSTRALIA AWARDS 2008’

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Fergie Clumsy
Mika Happy Ending
Delta Goodrem Believe Again
Foo Fighters The Pretender
50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland Ayo Technology

AUSTRALIAN ARTIST MUSIC AWARD
Sneaky Sound System N/A
Silverchair N/A
Delta Goodrem N/A
The Veronicas N/A
Operator Please N/A

NEW ZEALAND ARTIST AWARD
Opshop N/A
Scribe N/A
The Mint Chicks N/A
Atlas N/A
The Checks N/A

MTV LIVE PERFORMER AWARD
Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace Tour
Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveShow Tour
P!nk I’m Not Dead Tour
Lupe Fiasco Snow Jam
Juliette & the Licks The Lair

TELEVISION MOMENT AWARD
Chaser’s War on Everything APEC 2007 Stunt
Corey Worthington The ‘A Current Affair’ Interview
Jake Brown X Games 45ft stack & stand
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila Brandi and Vanessa’s fight
Snoop Dogg MTV Citizenship campaign

MTV GOOD KARMA AWARD
Bliss n Eso South African fundraising efforts, including ‘Bullet and a Target’ charity single
Sea Shepherd Crew of the Steve Irwin Trying to keep whales on the planet a little longer
Young People of Australia For believing saying sorry was something worth voting for
Earth Hour Engaging Australia and the world to act against climate change.
Movember Raising awareness and funding for male health issues
BAD KARMA AWARD
Kevin Andrews For refusing Snoop Dogg entry into Australia
Kevin Andrews For saying “He doesn't seem the sort of bloke we want in this country”
Kevin Andrews For defining ‘bad hair day’
Kevin Andrews For all of the above, especially the hair, and the Snoop Dogg thing

REMAKE AWARD
Summer Heights High Ja’mie’s teary tirade
Chris Crocker ‘Leave Britney Alone’ freakout
Heath Franklin Chopper’s Weather Report
Roads & Traffic Authority ‘Speeding. No One Thinks Big of You.’ Campaign
Winners will be announced at the MTV Australia Awards on Saturday, April 26 2008. The show will broadcast on MTV, channel 60 SKY Digital, Monday, April 28 from 7pm. Further MTV Australia Awards talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

About MTV New Zealand: MTV NZ is a 24-hour music and entertainment channel targeting 15 -29 year olds on SKY Digital channel 60 and SKY Mobile TV on Vodafone 3G. Visit www.mtv.co.nz for more details.

About MTV Networks International includes the premier multimedia entertainment brands MTV: Music Television, VH1, Nickelodeon, TMF (The Music Factory), VIVA, Comedy Central and Game One seen in 420 million households in 164 countries and 18 languages via 104 locally programmed and operated TV channels and 90 Web sites. The company's diverse holdings also include interests in television syndication, digital media, publishing, home video, radio, recorded music, licensing & merchandising and two feature film divisions, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. MTV Networks is a unit of Viacom International Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

ENDS

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