Animation production studio Animax Ent. won a Sports Emmy Award for Off-Mikes, a weekly original animated series that appears on ESPN.com. Animax and ESPN.com jointly accepted the award for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms, a category that the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences debuted this year.
Off-Mikes is based on the ESPN Radio show Mike & Mike In the Morning, featuring Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg. To create each episode, Animax edits audio from the live radio program and then takes the story in unexpected, comical directions. The installments are animated using traditional 2D animation techniques and Macromedia Flash. After debuting on ESPN’s broadband video portal, Motion, the episodes are then are ported for mobile and television use.
“To get this kind of validation for our work is truly amazing,” says Animax Ent. general manager Michael Bellavia. “We were very early to enter the market of producing animated broadband content, so it’s especially rewarding that our first Emmy is in this first-ever category. Big thanks to the Academy.”
The 27th Annual Sports Emmy Awards were presented at a ceremony on Monday, May 1, at Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Center in New York City. The win represents Animax’s first Emmy Award, and may be the first time character animation has ever won a Sports Emmy Award. Episodes of Off-Mikes are archived online at http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/story?storyId=2061832.
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