Viacom chairman and CEO Sumner M Redstone will receive the Media Person of the Year Award at this year‘s Cannes Lions Festival. The trophy will be presented to Redstone during the Press, Outdoor and Media Lions Awards Ceremony on 18 June.

Redstone is being recognised for establishing Viacom as one of the world‘s premier entertainment and media companies. Viacom is also the planet‘s largest platform for advertising, holding commanding positions in broadcasting and cable television, radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising media.

Viacom is the only media company to own two US broadcast networks, CBS and UPN; and manages a total of nine cable programming services, including the global youth brand MTV, which reaches 450 million homes around the world and children‘s network Nickelodeon, with a reach of 225 million. As CEO since 1987, Redstone made it a leading global and diversified media company.

The 49th International Advertising Festival will be held from 16 to 22 June 2002 in Cannes, France with over 9,000 delegates from the advertising and allied industries in attendance to celebrate the creme de la creme of creativity in all major media, discuss industry issues and network with one another. Over 17,000 ads from all over the world are showcased at the Festival and a unique programme of high-profile seminars, organized by some of the biggest names in the industry, is also presented. Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion awards, honoring the most creative TV/cinema, print, outdoor and online advertising, as well as the best media and direct marketing solutions.

Online voting for this year‘s MTV Movie Awards has crossed the eight million mark, an all time high, says the channel. The figure represents an increase of 75 per cent over last year.
Nominees for the 2002 MTV Movie Awards were chosen through a poll of MTV and MTV2 viewers, an official release says. MTV, MTV2 and MTV.com viewers, voted from 23 April till 18 May online via MTV.com or by telephone for selecting the winners.

The eleventh edition of the show will be taped on Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and will air on 6 June at 9 pm (ET/PT). A highlight of the show will be Kelly Osbourne performing her cover of Madonna‘s Papa Don‘t Preach for the first time ever. Actors Ben Affleck (The Sum of all fears), Vin Diesel (Boiler Room), Winona Ryder (Reality Bites) and Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) are among the star-studded list of presenters. The show will be hosted by Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer fame.

The show will be available to a potential viewing audience of over one billion people through MTV‘s 35 channels reaching 382.1 million households around the world as well as through syndication. MTV.com will feature convergent as well as original interactive programming.

Official sponsors of the event include 7 Up, GM, Apple, Hyundai, Nike, Visa and Mars.