PIONEER TO SPONSOR THE BBC FOUR WORLD CINEMA AWARD

AND

BBC RADIO 3 AWARDS FOR WORLD MUSIC EVENTS

It was announced today that Pioneer GB Limited would be the new sponsor of both the BBC FOUR World Cinema Award and BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2006. This means that Pioneer becomes the first sponsor of both Awards events.

Next year?s World Cinema Award ceremony will be held at the National Film Theatre on January 26th. It will be broadcast on BBC FOUR at 9.00pm and will be repeated several times over the following month. The ceremony will be presented by Jonathan Ross and will be attended by members of the film industry, celebrities, the media and the public.

Over 120 film critics, reviewers, festival directors and cinema bookersvote on their favourite international foreign language film of the year.. From this, a shortlist of 6 films is drawn up and a high-calibre jury decides the winner. Previous jury members have included actors Gillian Anderson and Robert Carlyle, Oscar-winning director Kevin MacDonald and singer Bjork. The list of nominees for 2006 will be announced January 6th.

Last year, the Award was won by ?The Return? - directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and winner of several international awards including ?Golden Lion Best Film and Best First Film?(Venice 2003) and ?10 Directors To Watch? (Variety).

2006 is the fifth year that the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music take place. This annual global music awards event is a celebration of the best live music from all four corners of the world . The list of winners will be announced on February 25th in London and will be followed by a Poll Winners concert on April 7th at Brixton Academy.

The Awards consist of 10 categories including Club Global, Africa, Newcomer, Americas, Middle East and Album of the Year. To commemorate the event, Union Square Records will release an album of Awards for World Music CD in March.

David Goldesgeyme, BBC Head of Sponsorship, said:

?We are delighted that Pioneer has agreed to sponsor these two prestigious awards events. Pioneer's involvement reflects the truly international nature of these events and we look forward to making the 2006 awards even bigger with their support"

Hiroshi Seki, Managing Director of Pioneer GB Limited said:

?Pioneer is honoured to be working with the BBC on these prestigious Awards events. The relationship between the two brands reflects cutting edge innovation in all industries. We are delighted to become the first ever sponsors of these events.?