Broadcast Presentation Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

An individual video entry in which a school student presents a short news item and a documentary, feature or programme segment to camera in one continuous take of up to six minutes, entered in Sinhala, Tamil or English.

Broadcast Presentation turns a school student into a presenter. Instead of standing on a stage, the contestant records a short video in which they behave the way a television or radio presenter would: reading a news item with authority, then moving on to a second piece that introduces a documentary, a feature or a programme. The competition this page is written from, a national school media-literacy programme in Sri Lanka, caps the whole video at six minutes: a news presentation of up to three minutes followed by a documentary, feature or programme presentation of up to three minutes.

Both parts are recorded in a single continuous take, with no editing and no interruption, so the contestant cannot cut out a stumble or re-record the second half. The video is sent in as an MP4 or MOV file, the picture and the sound must be clear, and at the very start the contestant says their own name, age category and school. Only one video is allowed per contestant, and the voice must be the contestant’s own: voice-overs, dubbing and another person speaking on their behalf are not allowed.

The entry is open to students in two grade bands, Junior (Grades 6 to 9) and Senior (Grades 10 to 13), and each band is run in Sinhala, Tamil and English, so six separate contests are judged and a winner is named for each band and language. The programme prints grades, not ages. A second stage follows the video round: contestants who are shortlisted are invited to a live final at a venue announced later, so the recorded entry is a qualifier for a live performance rather than the end of the road.

For an organiser, the item is mostly a watching job rather than a staging job. There is no stage, no accompanist and no props to manage: a coordinator receives the videos, checks the file type, the length, the language and the grade band, makes sure each video starts with the spoken introduction, and gives every panel member the same set of entries to view. The programme lists what the panel watches but prints no marks and no points for the places, so the organiser decides how to score; the template installs the item with a default maximum of 100 marks and zero place points, and a coordinator can change both.

Where Broadcast Presentation is run

In eTalenter’s data the exact title Broadcast Presentation is carried by one template, a Sri Lankan national school media-literacy competition run by a government information department for students of government, semi-government, private and international schools. Presenting, news-reading and anchoring items do appear in other school and youth festivals under their own titles, such as News Reading and Anchoring, which have separate pages here; this page describes only the Sri Lankan edition and does not claim use elsewhere.

• Sri Lanka

Key facts

• Individual video entry: one student, one video, recorded by the contestant and sent by e-mail only. Students of any school type (government, semi-government, private or international) may enter.
• Maximum six minutes in total: a news presentation of up to three minutes plus a documentary, feature or programme presentation of up to three minutes, in one continuous take with no editing.
• Two grade bands, Junior (Grades 6 to 9) and Senior (Grades 10 to 13), each in Sinhala, Tamil and English, so a winner is chosen per band and per language. The programme prints grades, not ages.
• MP4 or MOV file with clear picture and sound; the video opens with the contestant saying their name, age category and school. Voice-overs, dubbing and another person speaking for the contestant are not allowed.
• Shortlisted contestants are invited to a live final at a venue announced later. No marks or place points are printed; the template installs 100 marks by default, and First, Second and Third Places and Certificates of Merit are awarded in each category.
• Idea starters, not rules: a school-day news round-up with a weather line, a harvest or sports-day report followed by a short profile of a local craftsperson, a traffic-safety bulletin followed by a children’s programme introduction.

On eTalenter, Broadcast Presentation is filed under Multimedia and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Broadcast Presentation is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 6 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Broadcast Presentation

What a Broadcast Presentation panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• The programme lists nine things the panel watches: pronunciation, voice control, language proficiency, presentation style, credibility, creativity, time management, the ability to hold the audience, and the organisation and coherence of the content. It prints no marks against them, so these are the headings a panel can sensibly build a score sheet from.
• Pronunciation and language: every word clear and correctly stressed in the chosen medium, with grammar that holds up under the pressure of reading aloud. Because Sinhala, Tamil and English are judged as separate contests, a presenter is compared with others speaking the same language.
• Voice control and delivery: steady pace, varied pitch, breath management and pauses at the end of sentences. A news voice is firm and even; a feature or programme voice is allowed more warmth. Marks are lost by racing to beat the clock and by a flat voice that never changes between the two segments.
• Credibility and presentation: eye contact with the lens, an upright posture, a calm face and a tidy, plain background. The panel is asked about credibility, so a presenter who looks as though they believe what they are saying scores higher than one who simply recites a script.
• Content, coherence and time: the news item should be real-sounding and well ordered, and the second segment should clearly differ in form and tone from the first. Time management matters because the six-minute cap is a hard ceiling and the two halves have their own three-minute limits; running over, or finishing a part far short, shows poor planning. Creativity is shown in the choice of subject and the way the second segment is framed, not in effects, since no editing is permitted.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Broadcast Presentation under Scoring Setup, or start from the full elocution & speech judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Broadcast Presentation

How entrants and their teachers usually get Broadcast Presentation right on the day:

• Watch two or three real news bulletins and one documentary or magazine programme introduction in your language, with the sound on and then with the sound off. Notice how the presenter sits, where they look, and how the voice changes between the headlines and the lighter items.
• Write both scripts out in full and time them aloud with a stopwatch. Aim for about two and a half minutes for each part so that you finish inside the three-minute limit with a little room, rather than rushing the last paragraph.
• Choose a news item that is clear and short, with one main fact in the first sentence and the supporting details after it. For the second segment, pick a documentary, feature or programme idea you can introduce confidently in your own words, and keep it different in mood from the news.
• Practise in one continuous take from the first day, because the rules rule out editing. Record the whole six minutes many times, and watch the playback for places where you looked down, swallowed a word or let the pace slip.
• Set up simply: a plain background, good front light, a steady phone or camera at eye level and a quiet room. Test the sound before every take, because unclear audio cannot be fixed afterwards. Save the file as MP4 or MOV.
• Start each recording with your name, age category and school in a clear voice, as the rules require, and do all the speaking yourself. Using another person’s voice, or a voice-over, breaks the rules.
• Shortlisted entrants are called to a live final, so keep practising after the video is sent. Rehearse in front of an audience, without notes where you can, and be ready for a live setting where you cannot start again.

Frequently asked questions

Is Broadcast Presentation judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

Is Broadcast Presentation the same as news reading?

Not quite. News reading is one bulletin read aloud. Broadcast Presentation here has two parts in the same video: a news presentation of up to three minutes and a documentary, feature or programme presentation of up to three minutes. News Reading and Anchoring are separate items with their own pages.

How long can the video be?

Up to six minutes in total, made of a news presentation of up to three minutes and a documentary, feature or programme presentation of up to three minutes. Both are recorded in a single continuous take.

Can I edit the video or add music and effects?

No. The rules require both presentations in one continuous take with no editing or interruption, and the contestant’s own voice must be heard throughout. Voice-overs and dubbing are not allowed.

What video format and what opening words are needed?

The file is MP4 or MOV, with a clear picture and sound. At the start, the contestant says their name, age category and school. Only one video per contestant is allowed, sent by e-mail only.

What happens after the video round?

Shortlisted contestants are invited to a live final at a venue announced later. Winners are chosen separately for each age band and language, with First, Second and Third Places and Certificates of Merit.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full elocution & speech judging criteria guide, or browse every multimedia competition item.