MUMBAI: HBO, Cinemax and BBC America have won multiple Peabody awards in the US. The Peabody Award is considered to be very selective and prestigious and is administered by the University of Georgia.

The ceremony takes place on 16 May in New York City.

BBC America won two awards for State of Play a gripping political thriller and The Kumars at No. 42. The sitcom was cited by the Peabody Board for its fusion of genres that never fails to delight as it illustrates the quirks that unite families, regardless of culture or background. In India, the show airs on Star World. The local version that involves a Parsi family airs on Sony.

The History Channel's Rwanda-Do the Scars Ever Fade? was honoured for documenting world humanitarian issues. Through first-person accounts the documentary special asks the question of how an entire nation and culture can recover from the terrors of its past.

Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 'Indecision 2004' won a Peabody for its presidential campaign coverage. The Peabody Board cited the show's appeal as satire that deflates pomposity on an equal opportunity basis. This is the programme's second Peabody; it also won for its 2000 election coverage.

Cinemax received honours for the documentary Bus 174. This is an examination of the disintegration of a violent hostage situation in Brazil - covered live on TV. HBO was cited for Beah: A Black Woman Speaks. This is a loving biographical tribute to actress Beah Richards and was cited by the Peabody Board as giving a remarkable insight into her life as an actress, poet and teacher. Its movie Something the Lord Made, which is the true story of two men who defied racial strictures in the Jim Crow South and pioneered the field of heart surgery in 1944, was also cited.

Discovery won for Black Sky: The Race for Space. This documentary chronicles the first great aeronautical feat of the 21st century and its reinvention of space travel.