Frankfurt/Munich, 27 October 2021. The winners of the "Connect! The Smart TV Award 2021" have been announced. MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN and the Deutsche TV-Plattform honoured the best innovations, apps and services for connected TV.

CONNECT! THE SMART TV AWARD: The winners of the award ceremony on 26.10.2021

Category 1: Like2Use - Best User Experience
Winner: DAZN // DAZN DACH GmbH
Jury statement: "Great sport: DAZN offers viewers an impressive experience with top sport from all over the world. The large selection is very well structured, and the content can be expanded at will according to interest. The intuitive usability is particularly noteworthy; viewers can navigate through the exciting world of sport with ease.

Category 2: Feels like Magic - Best technological innovation
Winner: HbbTV Audiosync // Bayerischer Rundfunk
Begründung der Jury: Barrierefreiheit zum Anhören: Mit der App „BR Audiodeskription“ können Zuschauer:innen am Smartphone eine für sie passende Tonspur am „Second Device“ zum laufenden Fernsehbild auswählen. Das ist innovativ und inklusiv, denn es ermöglicht Menschen mit fehlendem oder stark eingeschränktem Sehvermögen per Kopfhörer ein gemeinschaftliches Fernseherlebnis zusammen mit Sehenden.

Category 3: Loud & Clear - Best Brand Performance
Winner: The Smart TV App of the German Bundestag // German Bundestag
Winner: The Smart TV App of the German Bundestag // German Bundestag Jury statement: Politics for everyone: The app of the German Bundestag offers live and on-demand access to all parliamentary sessions and committee meetings. Users can find every session in the excellently structured offer. In terms of parliamentarianism and political education, this is a very valuable offer that brings politics a good deal closer to the citizens.

Category 4: Good2CU - Best special interest offer
Winner: Filmfriend - The film portal for libraries // filmwerte GmbH
Jury statement: An exciting offer for cinema fans: For all lovers of films beyond the mainstream, Filmfriend offers a special film offer in cooperation with about 350 public libraries. Thanks to this captivating idea, library card holders are given access to an excellently curated offer of arthouse films, which is thematically very well structured.

Category 5: All Eyes on you - Best Newcomer
Winner: Sportworld "My View" (Multi-View) - B1 Smart TV GmbH
Jury statement: Second Screen par excellence: "My View" opens up a new dimension of sports TV for viewers. Thanks to the exact synchronisation of the mobile app and Connected TV, users can call up additional information and statistics at any time - or even become their own director and follow live sporting events from different camera views.

The winners were selected by a jury of five experts: Christine Gebhard (film-tv-video.de), Prof. Dr. Heidi Krömker (TU Ilmenau), Jan Möllendorf (defacto x), Kathleen Schröter (J2C) and Torsten Zarges (DWDL). The award is supported by MedienNetzwerk Bayern.

Andre Prahl, Chairman of the Deutsche TV-Plattform: "Congratulations to the winners of the Smart TV Awards 2021! The thematic range of the award-winning services impressively shows that high-quality smart TV today enriches the offer for viewers and customers in many ways. I would like to express my sincere thanks to MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN for the excellent cooperation and to MedienNetzwerk Bayern for their valuable support."

"We are very pleased to present our Connect! The Smart TV Award this year together with the Deutsche TV-Plattform in front of a live audience at the Isarforum in Munich. Connected TV is more important than ever. This is shown not least by the winners of the award. They are prime examples of what modern and interactive television can look like and what added value is created for viewers. We congratulate the winners of the award for their innovative products and services", says Stefan Sutor, Managing Director of Medien.Bayern GmbH.

The "Connect! The Smart TV Award" was presented at the end of the MEDIENTAGE Special "Connect! The Future of TV". The special took place for the sixth time this year (on site at the Isarforum as well as online) and was dedicated to the world of networked television in lectures and discussion rounds.

The event was moderated by Carine Lea Chardon (ZVEI / Deutsche TV-Plattform).

You can find the recording of the event in the media library on the digital platform of MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN: www.medientage-digital.de

A summary of the event can be found on the MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN blog: https://blog.medientage.de/