Bangalore: Reliance Broadcast Network's Ltd (RBNL) radio arm 92.7 Big FM has announced â€?Big Kannada Music Awards', a platform to recognize and celebrate outstanding talent in Kannada Music 

The awards will be held at Bangalore University's Gnan Jyoti Convention Centre on 22 August 

An initial curtain raiser episode of 30 to 60 minutes as well as the award function will be broadcast on Star's Kannada channel Suvarana 

The awards will be split into two main categories – Popular awards and Jury awards. The sub-categories under Popular awards are Love songs, Feeling songs, Josh songs, Vichitra songs and Tapang songs. The Jury awards sub-categories will be the conventional ones like best male and female singers, the best lyricists, best music director and others. There will be a total of 14 categories across both the awards. The results for the Popular categories will be driven by the voting system by the public through various mediums,... said 92.7 Big FM Cluster Head for Karnataka and Kerala sectors Sunil Kumaran.

The jury will comprise of stalwarts from Kannada music like Hamsalekha, Vijay Prakash and Raghavandra Rajkumar.

Starting 3 August, the music awards will see a month-long extensive promotion through TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, On-line, SMS, microsite and activations at malls, RWA's and other key touch points across Karnataka. Kumaran refused to disclose the amount that will be spent on promoting this event 

Suvrana will be promoting the awards on air, but since the broadcast date is almost a month away, and the Music Awards is a Big property, quite obviously Big will be promoting the event on other mediums,... revealed a source from Kannada television industry.

Suvarna is known for telecast of biggest events in Karnataka. We had Suvarna Film Awards, Sye Grand Finale with Prabhudeva, Star Singer Finale with Hariharan other shows in recent months. Pyate Hudigiru Halli Lifu Grand Finale last week set many records in viewership. Our events always are always a hit. Partnering with Big FM Music Awards further enhances our focus on events. It's a win-win situation for both brands,... said Suvarana business head Anup Chandrasekharan.

At present strategies are being worked out at Suvarna. Nothing has been finalized as yet about the ratio of air-time sharing. Probably both Suravarna and Big will sell some ad spots,... informed a source from Kannada television industry.

The television content will be produced by Suvarana. The title sponsor for television, radio and on ground will be Bharati Cement Corporation Limited. The associate sponsors will be independent for radio and television. They are Deccan Herald's Kannada paper Prajavani and herbal soap brand Medimix.