The Mobile Marketing Association has announced a new initiative to further the growth of participation TV in the US.
Participation TV, including voting, the integration of play-at-home mobile games into TV formats and mobile-originated user-generated content, has gone from strength to strength in the US since the first American Idol was aired by Fox in 2001.
In its inaugral year American Idol attracted 115 million votes, according to the show's voting platform provider Telescope, rising to 375 million in year three and to 610 million in year six, which has just finished its run.
The MMA's Participation TV Committee includes broadcasters, production companies, mobile operatorsand platform providers and build on guilines first laid down by the MMA in June 2005.The Committee will be co-chaired by Telescope and Granada USA.
The idea is to help the US market avoid the participation TV pitfalls encountered in certain European markets in recent times and ensure all levels of the value chain pull in the same direction.
Troy Sample, CEO of Telescope and chairman of the MMA PTV Group, said: "The formation of the Participation TV Interest Group occurs at a key juncture in the history of consumer-TV interaction, given the numerous and growing successes of reality, text-to-vote and mobile TV programming across the industr. The MMA is taking the leadership reins in its development of common guidelines upon which the entire industry can build their campaigns."
Article continues belowAdvertisement
Cyriac Roeding, executive vice president at CBS Mobile and MMA’s Global and North American chairman, said: "The Participation TV Interest Group will enable all players in the mobile marketing ecosystem to speed delivery of interactive or participation campaigns centered on the growing demands of today’s highly mobile consumer."
