The Awards celebrate excellence in broadcast television and aim to recognise the huge variety of skills and processes involved in programme production.

Awards are presented in 11 categories including: Design, Make Up Design, Costume Design, Production Design, Effects, Directors, Photography, Lighting and Multicamera, Sound, Editing and Music. In addition, there are three awards given at the discretion of the Judges: Design & Craft Innovation, Judges’ and Lifetime Achievement Awards. Entries are not accepted for these categories but the RTS welcomes suggestions.

This year will see Lee Connolly, Creative Director at ITV Studios, take over as Chair of the awards from former Chair, Cheryl Taylor. He says, “The RTS Craft & Design Awards are an excellent way of recognising the extraordinary breadth of talent and depth of expertise we have throughout the creative content industry and I am delighted to be the new Chair.”

All entries must be submitted using the RTS Online Awards Entry System by Friday, 1 September 2017. All entries must have been first transmitted between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 and may be submitted by companies or individuals. Click here to see the entry criteria.

The Awards will be presented on Monday 27 November 2017 at the London Hilton on Park Lane. 

THE AWARD CATEGORIES:

• Design – recognises achievement in three categories: trails and packaging, programme content sequences and titles.
• Make Up Design – recognises achievement in all areas of makeup, including hair styling and wigs, in two categories: drama and entertainment and non-drama productions.
• Costume Design – recognises achievement in two categories: drama and entertainment and non–drama productions.
• Production Design – recognises achievement in two categories: drama and entertainment and non–drama productions.
• Effects – recognises achievement from any area of programme making in three categories: digital effects, special effects and picture enhancement.
• Director – recognises achievement in three categories: comedy drama/situation comedy, drama and documentary/factual and non-drama productions. 
• Photography – recognises achievement in location based single camera work in two categories: drama and comedy, and documentary/factual and non-drama productions.
• Lighting and Multicamera – recognises achievement in three categories: lighting for multicamera, multicamera work and multicamera work – sport. The Multicamera awards are designed to recognise those who work in studio based or OB multicamera programming across all genres.
• Sound – recognises achievement in two categories: drama and entertainment and non-drama productions. These Awards recognise the whole sound team and both recording supervisor and mixing supervisor should be named on the entry form.
• Editing – recognises achievement in four categories: drama, documentary/factual, entertainment and comedy and sport.
• Music – recognises achievement in two categories: original title music and original score. The titles or score must be specially commissioned for a specific programme.