Monterosa's reac.tv Powers Social/Interactive TV Experience for Channel 4's "Come Dine With Me"

Monterosa Productions, a UK company that specializes in real-time technology and content, said Wednesday that it has secured its third major licensing deal with a UK broadcaster for its Twitter- and Facebook-integrated two-screen social TV platform, reac.tv. According to the company, Channel 4 has commissioned it to create a real-time mass participation experience for its show, "Come Dine With Me," allowing viewers to "rate, slate and debate" the show.

Starting this Sunday (November 8th), the company says, "Come Dine With Me" viewers will be able to go to Channel 4's 4Food Web site to take part in an online play-along game while watching the show on TV. According to the company, they will be able to rate the show's contestants and see if they can predict the outcome of its contest, and will also be encourage to comment on and debate "every aspect" of the show. While the reac.tv-powered two-screen interactive TV experience is only being deployed on a trial basis in association with the last four episodes of the current series of the show (including a "celebrity special"), Monterosa says that it will "be considered for further episodes" next year. "'Come Dine With Me' is a phenomenon with a huge community of fans chatting about the show online as they watch," Louise Brown, Channel 4's head of cross-platform commissioning, said in a prepared statement. "Monterosa's unique technology allowed us the opportunity to work with this behavior to really enhance viewers' experience and enjoyment of the show." Added 4Food site editor, Julia Pal: "[Viewers] already use the 4Food site as their space to comment on 'Come Dine With Me.' Now we're giving them the chance to do that in real time, in an online format that really captures the spirit of the show."

The first broadcaster to use reac.tv was Virgin Media Television, which employed it to power interactivity on the show, "Four Weddings" (see the article published on itvt.com, July 6th), and on the 12th series of "America's Next Top Model." According to Monterosa, those deployments generated some "compelling" statistics on viewer responses to the two-screen interactive/social TV experience that the platform enabled: 84% of participants said they were more inclined to watch live because they were able to play along, the company claims, 80% of those participants were people who watched almost all episodes, and, after participating, 51% thought more positively of the channel the shows aired on.