or


[04/18/06 - 12:00 AM]
Viewers Becoming Increasingly More Interactive with NBC Universal Programming

[via press release from NBC Universal Television Studio]

VIEWERS BECOMING INCREASINGLY MORE INTERACTIVE WITH NBC UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMING

"Deal Or No Deal" Receives Over 30 Million Total Votes This Year

NEW YORK -- April 18, 2006 -- Viewers are becoming increasingly more interactive with NBC Universal programming, from voting for their favorite Project Runway contestant on Bravo to guessing the lucky suitcase on NBC's "Deal or No Deal."

Viewers of "Deal or No Deal" are given the opportunity to win $10,000 by playing the "Lucky Case Game" via text messaging on their cell phones or by logging on to NBC.com. Since its return to NBC in March, the show has generated over 30 Million total Short Messaging Service (SMS) and online votes.

"Interactive television is clearly resonating with our audience," said Darren Feher, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NBC Universal. "It is a powerful tool, which not only brings value to the viewers, who are much more engaged in the programming, but also the advertisers who are seeking their attention."

"For the past decade, NBC has been a leading innovator of interactive services to enhance its programming for viewers," said Jon Dakss, Director of iTV Product Development, NBC Universal. "You will be seeing a lot more interactivity across all of our networks, across multiple platforms, in the coming year."

Time Warner Cable and BrightHouse Networks digital cable subscribers are able to interact with Bravo's new hit reality series "Top Chef" using their remote controls. Throughout each episode, viewers are prompted to answer amusing polls about food and which chef they want to send home. Additionally, viewers are given the unique chance to receive text messages during the program from the various cast members themselves. Based on its success with fans, NBC's "The Apprentice" is now offering a similar service for viewers.

"We are seeing a real interest from our affiliates on rolling out more interactive services," said Jean-Briac Perrette, Senior Vice President, New Media and Chief Financial Officer, NBC Universal Cable. "We will continue to explore unique and innovative ways for them to deliver a more robust television experience to their customers."

During the March 8th finale of Project Runway, viewers could interact through their cell phones, as well as online, answering show-related questions. The results were displayed throughout the episode. All participants were automatically qualified to be randomly selected to win one of ten video iPods. The show yielded Bravo's highest ratings to date, with BravoTV.com receiving a record 5 million page views and 225,000 unique visitors. Over 100,000 votes were received across web and SMS.

During CNBC's Suze Orman show, viewers had the opportunity to send text messages via their cell phones to the broadcast. These viewer messages appeared in a crawl at the bottom of the screen throughout the show. This marks the first time a mainstream network and program adopted this format in the US.

Interactivity was also a popular feature for viewers of the Olympics. For the first time in the US, NBC offered an immersive interactive application for the Olympics across three major cable and satellite providers simultaneously: DIRECTV, DISH Network and Time Warner Cable. The service allowed viewers to access medal counts, news and athlete bios. DIRECTV recorded one million unique households that used the 2006 Winter Olympic interactive features available through the DIRECTV Sports mix channel, with more than four million individual interactions. This averaged to approximately 4.5 customer interactions per DIRECTV household. Time Warner Cable reported a 23% average usage rate of iTV among the 700,000 subscriber homes where this application was available. In Green Bay Wisconsin alone, 45% of Time Warner subscriber's used the interactive application.





  [april 2006]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
      


· APPRENTICE, THE (NBC)
· DEAL OR NO DEAL (CNBC)
· TOP CHEF (BRAVO)





[07/03/25 - 02:33 PM]
ABC News Same-Day Primetime Special "Verdict: The Diddy Trial" Is No. 1 in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54
Versus the competition in the time period, "Verdict: The Diddy Trial" outperformed NBC by +40% in Adults 18-49 (212,000 vs. 151,000) and +22% in Adults 25-54.

[07/03/25 - 10:00 AM]
Video: "In the Lost Lands" - Official Trailer - Hulu
In the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands, a sorceress (Milla Jovovich) and mysterious drifter (Dave Bautista) must join together in order to survive against the supernatural forces which threaten their world.

[07/03/25 - 09:01 AM]
"Digman!" Season Two to Premiere Immediately After "South Park" Wednesday, July 23rd at 10:30PM ET/PT on Comedy Central
Season two will feature guest voice appearances from a wide array of fan-favorite talent.

[07/03/25 - 08:01 AM]
Nat Geo's Nine-Time Emmy Award-Winning Series "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller" Returns with Powerful New Season Exploring the World's Deadliest Underground Markets
The new season kicks off with a groundbreaking look into the operations of Mexican cartels inside the United States.

[07/03/25 - 06:12 AM]
Video: "The Idaho Student Murders" - Official Trailer - Peacock Original
A feature documentary focuses its lens on the pre-trial case against Bryan Kohberger, a young criminology student accused of brutally stabbing to death four University of Idaho coeds.

[07/03/25 - 02:01 AM]
Video: "The Assassin" Sets Premiere Date in the UK and Ireland with Explosive New Trailer
Retired assassin Julie (Keeley Hawes) is reunited with her estranged son, Edward (Freddie Highmore), but her dangerous past begins to catch up with them.

[07/03/25 - 01:01 AM]
Video: "Catalog" - Official Trailer - Netflix
A recently widowed workaholic clumsily navigates life with his kids, guided by his late wife's online tips. Can he ace this crash course in parenthood?

[07/03/25 - 12:01 AM]
Video: "Diary of a Ditched Girl" - Meet the Cast - Netflix
Here they are: the boys of Malmö. Watch "Diary of a Ditched Girl" September 11 to see if she manages to get a second date with one of them.

[07/02/25 - 07:01 PM]
Video: "The Nice Guy" - Teaser Trailer - Disney+
Lee Dongwook is back and this time, it's romantic.

[07/02/25 - 06:44 PM]
Tyler Perry's "Divorced Sistas" Quickly Rises to Become BET+'s Most Watched Original Series in Platform History
Just halfway through the eight-episode season, existing subscribers and new fans of the show have boosted the drama series to the most-watched series premiere on BET+ in just three weeks.

[07/02/25 - 05:01 PM]
Video: "Wall to Wall" - Official Trailer - Netflix
A man who poured his life savings into a new apartment discovers its walls are full of disturbing noises, hostile neighbors and unsettling secrets.

[07/02/25 - 03:04 PM]
ABC News Announces "Verdict: The Diddy Trial," Airing Wednesday, July 2, at 10 P.M. on ABC, Streaming Next Day on Hulu
A verdict has been reached in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, who has been found guilty on two of five counts.

[07/02/25 - 02:38 PM]
Hallmark Channel Earns #1 Most-Watched Network on Weekends Throughout June with "Passport to Love" Programming Event
"Passport to Love" helped elevate Hallmark Channel to be the #1 most-watched network on weekends throughout the month of June.

[07/02/25 - 01:30 PM]
"New Amsterdam" Creator David Schulner Joins Creative Team of New FOX Drama Series "Memory of a Killer" as an Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner
Schulner will be an executive producer of the series alongside Ed Whitmore, Tracey Malone, and Cathy Schulman.

[07/02/25 - 11:52 AM]
ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One" Schedule Update: American League Leading Detroit Tigers to Visit Texas Rangers on July 20
Through 14 games, "Sunday Night Baseball" is averaging 1,750,000 million viewers, up 11 percent from last year.