–Plans to Roll Out Other Interactive Formats in the Sub-Continent
Cellcast Interactive India, a subsidiary of Cellcast, a UK company that specializes in SMS- and IVR-based interactive TV, says that its interactive TV reverse-auction show, "Bid2Win," generated over a million bids in its opening week. The show, which premiered in India on May 7th, is broadcast simultaneously across four Indian cable channels: Sony, SaharaOne, Zoom and Zee Punjabi. It allows viewers to participate in real-time auctions using their mobile phones as the backchannel: they can purchase consumer electronics products, such as LCD TV’s, iPods, home theater systems, digital cameras and laptops, for a nominal amount by submitting the lowest unique bid via SMS or IVR. Cellast says that it developed the concept for Bid2Win as a live SMS-driven ITV show with Star TV in India in the fall of 2004: the resulting show apparently generated over 6.7 million bids. The format has since been launched in a number of other markets in the Middle East and China. Cellcast says it plans to roll out Bid2Win to Indian television networks across the globe (i.e. to networks that serve the Indian diaspora) over the next three months, and that it will launch various new formats in the sub-continent itself. "We have an exciting range of new products and shows which we expect to launch in India over the next six months," Cellcast Interactive India CEO, Pankaj Thakar, said in a prepared statement. "These include ‘Golden Goal,’ a virtual soccer show to be aired during World Cup; a new virtual cricket show, ‘Beat Them All’; an interactive astrology show, ‘Interactive Astro’; an exciting game similar to ‘Tambola,’ ‘Go Bingo’; the numbers quiz, ‘Qeno’; a celebrity-based quiz show, ‘The Challenge’; an interactive shopping show, ‘Shop-o-holic’; an interactive show based on Bollywood, ‘Bollywood Dhamaka’; and ‘Insomnia,’ the interactive gameshow enjoying international success."
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