In the year the Channel Awards celebrates its 30th birthday, we plan to make the event bigger and better than ever. Entries for the 2023 Awards are now OPEN!
CRN is proud to launch the 30th annual Channel Awards today, a milestone definitely worth celebrating.
Back in 1993 when the first awards launched, they were held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair , but soon outgrew the venue and moved to our permanent home at Battersea. There the awards grew from a curtained off corner of the room, to taking over the entire space and becoming the behemoth we know today.
The awards have had some fascinating faces presenting them over the years, including Bob Monkhouse, Graham Norton, Dara O'Briain and Rob Bryden. Who could forget Melinda Messenger and Jo Brand as well? - both caused a stir for different reasons.
We will be running a few articles this year looking back over the last 30 years and some of the awards themselves and we would love to hear your memories of the awards, particularly if you have been to every single one of them. Please do get in contact with [email protected].
But back to this year's awards, as with every year, we have reassessed the categories in a bid to keep them fresh and relevant, and this year is perhaps some of the biggest changes we have made for a few years.
Namely the revenue brackets for Reseller of the Year and Distributor of the Year - we have added a third revenue bracket for both this year based on how the market is expanding and growing, and to give players of all sizes a more level playing field. These are:
Reseller of the Year - Up to £30m turnover
Distributor of the Year - Up to £50m turnover
The two new revenue brackets will just be judged based on entries alone this year, there will be no need for extra presentations on judging day - we are keen to see how the brackets are received by the industry and if they work well, then next year we will revisit how the winners are decided.
Entrants for the other tiers - Reseller of the year £31m - £200m and Reseller of the Year £200m+, plus Distributor of the Year £51m - £300m and Distributor of the Year £300m+ will still be asked to attend the Judging Day on Thursday 5 October to present in front of the judges.
The Vendor of the Year category will also be presented to the judging panel.
All the categories, and links to the criteria for each can be found in this article.
More articles and tips explaining the changes to categories will be released in due course - keep you eye out for these on Channelweb.
To find out more about the awards and categories, visit the dedicated Channel Awards site here, and also check out the entry Ts&Cs here.
The very best of luck to everyone and here's to a fantastic 30th birthday year for the Channel Oscars!
Please note - the deadline for entries will be Friday 30 June.
