The event was announced at a media briefing held earlier this week. Kishan Thedore - Deputy Chairman - The Kingdom of Raigam, Tharaka Ranwala - DGM Marketing & Business Development - Sampath Bank, Dr. Ravi Liyanage - Chairman - The Kingdom of Raigam, Ganaka Amarasinghe - Managing Director - The Kingdom of Raigam and Prof. Patrick Rathnayake - Chairman of the Judge Panel attended the media briefing.

Twelve years ago Raigam Tele-awards Ceremony started as an awards ceremony for the tele-drama industry and later re-branded as Raigam Tele’es to appreciate all sectors of the television media which includes tele-dramas as well as other television programmes such as sports, children’s, political, news, documentary, reality and many other not forgetting technical and individual talents.

The awards are listed four main categories.

Tele-drama Excellence Awards

Although the overview of the Raigam Tele’es has been broadened, the Raigam Tele’es Secretariat has decided to keep the number of awards unchanged.

Accordingly this year too there will be number of awards for year’s best creating, acting, singing and technical talents of multi-episode tele-drama and single-episode tele-drama.

Television Media Excellence Awards

With the hope of encouraging production of creative and high value programs to sharpen the minds and tastes of the general public a number of awards will be presented to best efforts in this category including news reading, news reporting, current affairs, educational, children’s, musical, reality, and political Programs.

Awards for the best news reader and best presenter will be granted separately for each language Sinhala, English and Tamil.

Most Popular Awards

An opportunity has been allowed for thousands of television viewers to indicate their most preferred tele-drama, actor and the actress under this category through an SMS poll.

SMS voting will be opened from 2nd May to 2nd June 2016. 25 participants from SMS-voting will be selected to receive two invitations each to witness Raigam tele’es 2015.

The winners who will receive a message from the Raigam Tele’es Secretariat through the telephone number used to send the SMS will enable to receive printed invitations by forwarding the message at the gate.

Telephone Nos. for SMS Poll: 0772 522 522 / 0702 722 722

Awards of Appreciation

Honouring the pioneers and artists who had worked hard for the development of the television sector is one of the special events of the Raigam Tele’es. During the past Raigam Tele’es has honoured many senior artists, technicians and selected personalities who were instrumental in introducing television media in our country.

In 2007, ‘PRATHIBHA PRABHA’ life time awards scheme was introduced to honour and appreciate the contribution and achievement of most prominent personalities who contributed to build and develop the TV industry. Dr. D.B Nihalsinghe, Shan Wickramasinghe, Kalashoori Titus Thotawatta, Kalashoori Sathischandra Edirisinghe, Lucien Bulathsinghala, Tony Ranasinghe, Dharmasena Pathiraja, Parakrama Niriella, Jayalath Manorathne and Cyril Wickramage are the artists who have been honoured under this awards scheme.

Appreciation TV Channels

Raigam Tele’es is the only event in Sri Lanka which uses a clear-cut and a transparent scheme to appreciate the contribution of TV Channels.

The TV Channel which secures most number of awards under the Tele-drama Excellence category will be honoured as the “Tele-drama Channel of the Year” whilst the TV Channel which secures most number of awards under the Television Media Excellence category will be honoured as the “Televion Media Program Channel of the Year”.

The TV Channel which secures the most number of awards in total at the ceremony will be honoured as the “Best TV Channel of the Year”.

The Nominations Evening

The felicitation of the nominees recommended ahead of the Raigam Tele’es final event.

This year the Raigam Tele’es “Nominations Evening” will be held on a grander scale on 13th May 2016 at the Kingsbury, Colombo.

Awards Ceremony
The glamorous star studded awards awards ceremony will be an invitation only event. However, it will be telecast later on main TV Channels.

The Jury
The Judge Panel consists of seven members and most of them have past experience in similar capacity. This time the Chairman of the panel is Professor Patrick Rathnayake. Other members are Prof. Ajantha Hapuarchchi, Renown Film Critique & Journalist Gunasiri Silva, well-known journalist Jayantha Rukmanee Siriwardene, Senior Lecturer Hansamala Ritigahapola and Senior Administrative Officer Dr. D.M.R.B. Dissanayake. Prof. S.J.Yogarajah will perform duties as special advisor in the Tamil medium

Entries for the Ceremony

Entries for Raigam Tele’es 2015 are now accepted by the Raigam Tele’es Secretariat and will be closed on 28th of February 2016.

Creations eligible for evaluation for awards at the Raigam Tele’es 2015 are as follows.

1. Tele-dramas – Local tele-dramas that had telecast the last episode in 2015.

2. Other creations – Should have been telecast during 2015.

3. Any production telecast over cable TV or any other paid channel or any dubbed production (other than for best dubbing program) are not eligible for awards.

4. News Readers and Program Presenters may send their application through their TV channel or independently.