Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) News:

--Secures Deal to Enable Mobile Interactivity on Five's Flagship Shows
--Forms Experience Design Agency, "New Toy"
--Launches Refund Manager for Participation TV
--Extends Mobile Interactive Services Contract with FremantleMedia

Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), a UK company which, as its name suggests, offers a range of mobile-based interactive services, has generated a fair amount of news over the past few weeks:

• The company says it has secured a contract with UK terrestrial broadcaster, Five, that designates it as the latter's "preferred supplier" of mobile interactive services for all its flagship shows, including "Fifth Gear" and "The Gadget Show." The services--including feedback, alerts and more--will be powered by MIG's MIDAS platform. Presumably referring to the ongoing regulatory consequences of the UK's participation TV scandal, MIG claims to have been "working with mobile operators, broadcasters and governing bodies such as PhonepayPlus to offer a compliant and trusted solution to its clients in a fast-changing regulatory environment." "We have a great relationship with the team at MIG and we've been working closely with them to put the service and operational framework in place," Five's commercial development manager, Paul Gill, said in a prepared statement. "Their knowledge and expertise in the broadcast market is exceptional and it's imperative for Five to partner with the industry leaders. MIG's mobile messaging platform, MIDAS, is tried and tested by other leading broadcasters and production companies in the marketplace, which gives us 100% confidence in MIG's ability to deliver a robust and compliant solution for Five." Added MIG managing director, Barry Houlihan: "Our partnership with Five demonstrates MIG's leading position in the broadcast market. MIG is now recognized as the de facto mobile interactive partner of choice and now delivers full service mobile interactive solutions for the majority of major broadcasters, production and media companies in the UK. The broadcast team at MIG will work with Five on their mobile strategy, to increase consumer interactivity and to launch interactive services across the channel through our mobile messaging platform MIDAS. We plan to extend the group service offering to Five through MIG's sister company Jigsaw which will be working with Five's sponsorship and advertising teams to provide mobile interactivity to their brands and advertisers."
• The company has formed an experience design agency, called New Toy, which it says draws on the expertise of its event and mobile production teams to create "innovative" customer experiences. It claims that the new agency--whose service offerings include creative, strategy, project management, production and evaluation--has already created custom installations, RFID (NFC), AV production, text-to-screen services, interactive displays and mobile ticketing solutions for such clients as O2, Samsung and The Brits.
• The company has launched a product called Refund Manager which it describes as a custom mobile refund platform built specifically for the broadcast industry. According to MIG, Refund Manager, which is designed to address some of the problems with participation TV that came to light during the UK's recent participation TV scandal, will enable viewers who accidentally interact with time-sensitive mobile competitions or votes, when the latter have already closed, to self-serve refunds. The company claims that the product has been specifically designed in accordance with regulations imposed by UK regulatory body, PhonepayPlus, in order to "give broadcasters the confidence, and the toolset, to run fully compliant premium rate mobile interactive services." If a consumer's interaction with a participation TV service is too late (or too early), MIG says, Refund Manager will give that consumer the opportunity either to be reimbursed with the cost of their standard- or premium-rate message, or to donate the cost of their entry to a charity pre-ordained by the broadcaster. It presents consumers with a Web interface, through which they can enter their mailing address in order to receive a refund check, or select the charity to which they wish to donate. According to MIG, the platform allows broadcasters to cap the number of refunds per campaign, to view data on monies claimed or donated to charity, and to download reports on consumer activity. The company also says that the product can be plugged into any of its applications, or integrated into an external application, via its API set or a CSV upload. In order to ensure that broadcasters' can adhere to their brand guidelines, MIG says, Refund Manager can be offered as a white label product. "As the leading provider of mobile interactive services to the broadcast market, MIG are committed to providing compliant and robust services to our clients," MIG's Houlihan said in a prepared statement. "The integration of Refund Manager ensures the consumer is protected, whilst also rebuilding trust in participation-TV services like time-sensitive competitions and SMS voting."
• The company says it has signed a "major" extension of its contract to deliver mobile interactive services to FremantleMedia Enterprises' (FME) UK licensing division. According to the company, the contract extension means that, over the coming year, its MIDAS mobile messaging platform will power a host of mobile interactive TV services, including SMS-to-screen and competitions, for a range of primetime shows, including "Britain's Got Talent" and "The X Factor." The services will be supported 24/7 by MIG's dedicated operations team, the company says. In its press materials announcing the contract extension, MIG concedes that the UK participation TV "has seen some turbulent times over the past 12 months," but states that it has "worked closely with broadcasters, mobile operators and governing industry bodies, such as PhonepayPlus, to champion the provision of trusted and compliant services to our broadcast and media clients" and says that it will work closely with FME to "champion the return of SMS voting in some of the UK's biggest shows." "We are delighted to be working with FME for the fourth consecutive year," MIG's Houlihan said in a prepared statement. "Over the past three years, MIG has successfully powered a range of mobile interactive services for some of talkbackTHAMES', FremantleMedia's UK production company, most successful shows and the contract renewal underpins MIG's leading position as the mobile service provider of choice to the broadcast market." Added FME's VP of interactive and telephony, Robert Marsh: "We have developed a fantastic relationship with MIG over the years and it made sense to make those trusted links even stronger. The MIG team will continue to power mobile interactivity into 2009."