Dubai, 11 September 2011: Yahoo! Maktoob and the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) have announced that the 2011 People's Choice Award will be hosted on Yahoo! Maktoob, harnessing the site's enormous reach, which includes over 55 million users in the Middle East and North Africa. The People's Choice is the category in the AIB's international media excellence awards which is open to online viewers everywhere who vote for their favourite entry, and each year attracts entries from broadcasters across the globe.

This year's topic for the People's Choice award is "Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings" reflecting the momentous changes happening in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring and highlighting the impact that traditional and social broadcasting has had in enabling the movements for change.

The deadline for final entries is Friday September 16th, but already programmes have been submitted from Europe, Middle East, and Africa and include entries from Al Jazeera, Al Hurra, France24, NDTV, Press TV and The Doha Debates. A short list of the six best will be selected from which online users from across the world can view and vote on Yahoo! Maktoob from the second half of October. The winner will be announced at the AIB's ceremony on the 9th November.

Yahoo! Maktoob will be hosting the programmes on special pages in both English and Arabic versions, allowing a worldwide audience to participate in viewing and then choosing the one they like best. Viewers can also use the power of Yahoo! Maktoob's platform to comment on their choice and share their views and their votes with friends on Yahoo! Maktoob and other social media platforms.

Hosam El-Sokkari, Head of Audience, Yahoo! Middle East said, "As the premier digital media company, our partnership with AIB demonstrates our commitment to international broadcasting and our determination to bring the best from the top broadcasters in the Middle East. Yahoo! Maktoob is a natural home for the People's Choice Awards, as it leverages our existing video property and our big user base. The unfolding of the events in the region has been a central theme in the discussions that have been taking place across Yahoo! Maktoob's social platforms, and it is only fitting that the general public should decide the best programme on these events that have been vital to so many and on which thousands of individuals have contributed to breaking the news."

Simon Spanswick, CEO of the Association for International Broadcasting said, "The partnership with Yahoo! Maktoob means that these compelling TV programmes will catch the attention of a huge audience across the world, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, the heart of the region affected by the Arab Spring. These highly important events have presented extreme challenges for the broadcasters trying to cover them, but have resulted in some really fantastic output. They have demonstrated new methods of working where broadcasters have used input from those involved directly in the uprisings, via citizen journalism and social media, and have added context and validation before transmitting the news to a wider audience. Voters' comments will once again make sure the story evolves still further as broadcasters continue to be fully engaged with the audiences they are serving."

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