FremantleMedia and UK commercial terrestrial 
broadcaster, the Independent Television Network (note: the latter is generally referred to in the UK by the acronym, "ITV"), are offering an array of red-button, online and mobile interactive enhancements for the third season of the reality TV show, "The X Factor":
- Digital satellite and cable customers can access a 24/7 red-button application, created by Pushbutton, that allows them to vote for their favorite artists (when voting on the show begins next month), enter two in-show home-viewer competitions with prizes, play pay-to-play games, and explore an area devoted to the show's sponsor, Nokia.
- A deal between FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide and Nokia will see the latter offering viewers access via their mobile phones to exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and other clips from the show. In addition, ITV is making clips from the show available for download on its mobile portal immediately after the show's linear broadcast; the portal also offers regularly updated news and gossip, profiles of the judges and contestants, and downloadable wallpapers.
- The official "The X Factor" Web site, which is designed by FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide and built by @www, is offering a number of services including: 1) "Fan Central," a joint project with Lycos that invites fans to interact through message boards, forums and fan journals (FremantleMedia describes "Fan Central" as a "dedicated 'The X Factor' community where fans can chat directly with each other"); 2) a desktop avatar application, dubbed "Roving Reporter" and created in association with Yomego, which sends alerts to viewers when news and other content is added to the site; 3) three regular columns--the "Style Column," the "Vocal Coach Column" and the "Music Industry Column"--which offer expert advice and techniques related to the show; and 4) a variety of content that was also offered in conjunction with the show's last season, including news, gossip, photos, games, biographies of the show's presenters, judges and finalists, and an online shop. In addition, Nokia--which has a large presence on the site--is hosting a microsite featuring weekly footage, behind-the-scenes pictures, finalist videoblogs, free downloads, competitions, information on Nokia handsets, and more.
SMS voting on "The X Factor" is enabled by UK-based mobile multimedia services company, Mobile Interactive Group (MIG). The company says that it has completed an upgrade to the network connections and capacity of its SMS voting platform, Votewinner, in preparation for the show's new season (note: the platform has previously been used to enable voting on "I'm a Celebrity…Get me Out of Here" The Prince's Trust 30th Anniversary Concert and "Live8"). According to MIG, the enhancements to the Votewinner platform will allow it to deliver votes at speeds of 2,000 messages per second, when voting on "The X Factor" begins in October, and will make it the fastest SMS voting product currently available. The company says that the Votewinner enhancements will also allow it to set new records in the Irish market, by delivering throughput speeds of over 500 messages per second from the Irish operators, Vodafone IE, O2 IE, and Meteor, during "X Factor" voting. It claims that Votewinner already broke the high-speed SMS record for the UK, when it recorded throughput speeds of 1,300 messages per second on Vodafone during the season finale of "The X Factor" last year. "Last year's finale of 'The X Factor' was the biggest interactive voting event in history and Votewinner scaled up to handle the highest throughput ever at 1,300 messages per second, but why stop there?" MIG's managing director, Barry Houlihan, said in a prepared statement. "We've upgraded Votewinner and continue to improve all of our products ensuring that we not only meet the demands and high expectations of our clients but exceed them."
Click: http://www.itvt.com to subscribe to our free email newsletter, which contains all the news stories you see on this Web site, and additional breaking news and scoops, in-depth features, interviews, screenshots, videos, and other exclusive content you will not find anywhere else.
