Two Way TV Australia--a company which holds exclusive perpetual licenses to use technologies and content from Two Way TV UK in Australia and New Zealand, and which, following an IPO in which it raised AUS$40 million to fund its expansion, recently signed a licensing deal with the UK company that will allow it to use the latter's technologies in a number of new Asian markets--has signed a deal with Hong Kong-based free-to-air broadcaster, Asia Television (ATV) and TV production company, International Football Marketing, to enable interactivity on the latter's pre-game soccer panel series, "Kick Off Hot Talk." TWTV Australia will use the Simcast SMS-to-TV technology it licenses from its UK counterpart to enable interactive competitions, voting and chat on the program, starting with the latter's UEFA Cup pre-match show on September 27th (note: the show will have 23-episode run, ending May 17th). Viewers will be able to compete to win cash and other prizes, including a grand prize at the end of the series, consisting of a trip to London and tickets to major soccer games. The cost for viewers to participate will be HK$2.00 per message in Hong Kong and RMB1 per message in mainland China. TWTV Australia says that the show's producers anticipate that 3-6% of its audience will use the new interactive TV service: ATV claims that the show attracts approximately 600,000 viewers in Hong Kong and 4 million in the neighboring mainland China province of Guangdong. Net proceeds from the service (after carrier costs) will be shared equally between ATV, TWTV Australia and the show's producer: TWTV Australia estimates that its share could total anywhere between Aus$170,000 and Aus$430,000. The company claims to be in negotiations with "numerous" other broadcasters in Asia that are interested in using its technologies to roll out ITV services.
Click http://www.itvt.com to subscribe to our free email newsletter, which contains all the news stories you see on this Web site, and additional breaking news and scoops, in-depth features, interviews, and other exclusive content you will not read anywhere else.
Our [itvt] free industry database called The [i]Database contains many listings of operators, broadcasters, software developers, design firms, manufacturers, Web sites, consultancies and many more organizations and people working in the interactive multiplatform TV industry. Upload your company or yourself!