Sweden Wins Interactive TV Service, Finland Wins Interactive Program and the UK Wins Interactive Channel
MIPTV-Cannes, April 8, 2007 — The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced tonight the winners for the International Interactive Emmy® Awards, organized for the third year in a row in Cannes, France in partnership with Reed MIDEM and hosted by British comedian Brian Conley (The Brian Conley Show, Let Me Entertain You).
Scandinavia led the evening with Finland’s children’s program Staraoke winning the Interactive Program category and Sweden’s participation drama The Truth About Marika winning the Interactive TV Service category, while the Interactive Channel award went to the United Kingdom’s WeDigTV. Complete information on the winners follows this release.
“This year’s winners are an illustration of how technology is enhancing viewer participation and bringing an added value to television content,” said Bruce L. Paisner, President & CEO of The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. ”We congratulate them on their achievements.”
The awards ceremony and dinner was attended by over 150 international executives from the television, broadband and mobile industries and sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent.
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY
Founded in 1969, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is the largest organization of global broadcasters, with members from nearly 70 countries and over 400 companies. The Academy was chartered with a mission to recognize excellence in television programming produced outside of the United States, and it presents the International Emmy® Award to programs in fifteen categories: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actor; Best Performance by an Actress; News; Children & Young People; Comedy; Current Affairs; Documentary; Drama Series; Interactive Channel; Interactive Program; Interactive TV Service; Non-Scripted Entertainment; Telenovela and TV Movie/Mini-Series.
The Academy is a unique, independent organization comprised of the world’s television and media leaders who come together to exchange ideas, discuss common issues and promote new strategies for the future development of quality global television programming. Each year, the Academy produces the International Emmy® World Television Festival and the International Emmy® Awards Gala in New York City. The Festival features programming from around the world, and presentations and panels from international producers and directors. The International Emmy® Awards Gala attracts over 1,000 international figures in broadcast, entertainment and media. More information can be found online at www.iemmys.tv.
ABOUT REED MIDEM
Reed MIDEM is a leading organizer of professional, international tradeshows. Reed MIDEM events have established themselves as key dates in professional diaries. The company hosts MIPDOC, MIPTV, MILIA, MIPCOM JUNIOR and MIPCOM for the television and new media industries, MIDEM for music professionals, MIPIM and MAPIC for the property sector and GLOBAL CITY for urban management specialists.
Reed MIDEM is a division of Reed Exhibitions, the world leader in the organization of some 420 public exhibitions and professional tradeshows.
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Media Contacts:
Eva Obadia, Director, Marketing & PR
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
eva.obadia@iemmys.tv
T: 212-489-6969
F: 212-489-6557
Cell: 917-754-0085
Jane Garton, Press Manager
Reed Midem
jane.garton@reedmidem.com
Intervisio
Finland
Staraoke is an interactive crossmedia-concept, which combines a TV show for kids with a karaoke-type PC game and a web community. The Staraoke PC game is a singing game where the player controls the game character on the screen with the pitch of his/her voice. The software recognizes the pitch and gives points accordingly. Kids are instructed to download a demo of the Staraoke game from the show’s website, record their performance, and send the file to the show’s producers. Every third competitor of the Staraoke TV show is chosen from online submissions.
The JD Project Limited
United Kingdom
WeDigTV is the world’s first TV2 network. TV2 is a platform which allows viewers to dictate the terms of their interactive video experience. By delivering seemingly linear broadcasts to the user that are in fact fully interactive, TV2 makes the format-type show compelling and relevant in an age of true video on-demand. In each show, the user is able to engage with the host and ultimately decide the fate of their experience within the show itself. WeDigTV brings the user as close as possible to being in the contestant’s chair without actually sitting there.
Sveriges Television AB / The company P
Sweden
The Truth About Marika is a participation drama — a production created to enrich a drama series through the participation of viewers. The story takes place on television, national radio, the internet and mobile phone. Every week theories are discussed live in a show that has been enhanced with participatory content that exposes the truth about Marika in the end. Viewers are directly involved in the plot and its conclusion. Mobile phones become an important tool in the twilight zone between fiction and reality and bring the story out on the street into a fiction without limits.