NATAS Goes Paperless with New Daytime Emmy Web Portal
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Plans to Move Entire Entry-Award Process to Web
By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/6/2007 11:48:00 AM
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Thursday launched its new Internet portal, where all NATAS members can conduct almost all of their Daytime Emmy Awards business.
The new portal, developed by Corent Technology, allows people to submit their entry applications, read the rules and vote from anywhere at any time.
“This new portal for the Daytime Entertainment community brings us into the 21st century with a state-of-the-art entry tool that provides accuracy, immediate feedback and an opportunity for constant communication,” said Brent Stanton, executive director of the Daytime Emmy Award program, in a statement.
“Not only can you create your profile, review your entry status, submit payment by credit card through PayPal [https://www.paypal.com], upload judging credentials, download PDF files of important documents and ask questions, the new system will allow judges to effortlessly be assigned to panels where they can review entries and vote electronically from the comfort of their home or the nearest Starbucks,” he added.
NATAS has been moving toward such a paperless system for a few years now, Stanton said in an interview, gradually getting its members accustomed to the new process.
NATAS president and CEO Peter Price expects all of NATAS’ other award programs -- which include Emmys for news, sports and documentaries -- to come online within the next year.
“The new Daytime Entertainment portal is just the beginning of the digitizing of all of our entry-award processes as more and more of our business both internally and externally is moving to broadband,” Price said in a statement.
Beyond this portal, NATAS would also like to create an online viewing theater, where judges can watch entries on the Internet at their convenience. For now, all NATAS members don’t have access to technology that would let them watch DVD-quality episodes and clips, which would be necessary to judge many of the more technical categories, such as lighting, makeup and sound editing, Stanton said.
NATAS is also interested in adding social-networking features to the site, such as member profiles, in order to bring diverse TV communities together, Stanton added.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which handles the Primetime Emmy Awards, has no plans to convert its entry and voting process into an online one, a spokesperson said.
The deadline to enter the Daytime Emmys is Jan. 7. The 35th Annual Daytime Entertainment EmmyAwards will be broadcast live on ABC from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles Friday, June 20.
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