emuse Powers Interactive TV Application for "Australia's Next Top Model" on Foxtel

Dublin, Ireland-based interactive TV authoring solutions provider, emuse, is powering an interactive TV application for the Fox8 reality series, "Australia's Next Top Model," on the OpenTV-powered Foxtel pay-TV platform. Dubbed "Game On" and accessed through the red button, the new application allows viewers to play along with the show by giving their opinions as it unfolds and guessing who will be eliminated at the end of each episode. Immediately after the show's broadcast, opinions and results from the "Game On" app are made available on the "Australia's Next Top Model" Web and 3G sites.

According to emuse, the process of developing the new app began in late 2008. The company says that Fox8 had a "strong idea" of the kind of experience it wanted to provide to fans of "Australia's Next Top Model," and that Foxtel's interactive TV arm, Foxtel Active, then worked with the broadcaster to develop its idea into a concept for a bound ITV application. The companies then issued a tender that was won by emuse. The Irish company says that it delivered a reusable template tool that can be adapted to fit various TV show formats and that enables viewers to react to a show instantly.

According to emuse, the template allows a variety of features to be scheduled within a show, so that viewers can interact by giving their opinions, answering quiz questions, entering competitions, and viewing pop-up information screens. The company says that the template also provides various sponsorship opportunities, including banners, pop-up boxes and functionality that allows viewers to request more information on, or receive free samples of, a sponsor's products.

In related news: Foxtel is now using an emuse template for interactive TV ads that include a dedicated advertiser location (DAL). This represents the fourth emuse interactive TV advertising template that the Australian pay-TV provider has implemented to date.

The template is currently powering an interactive TV campaign by Nintendo: viewers who press the red button during the campaign's linear-TV spots are taken to a Nintendo-branded DAL that contains a specially shot 2/3-screen video, and a series of screens that are designed to enable Nintendo to gather responses directly from interested viewers. The template is also powering a "mini-video" DAL campaign for Cadbury's Spring Valley soft drink product. "The commercial launch of this iAd product is the fourth iAd template to be launched on the Foxtel platform using the emuse iAd template production tool," Foxtel's creative development manager, Craig Coates, said in a prepared statement. "This is the premiere tier iAd template that enables advertisers to show multiple product videos in either 1/4, 2/3 or full-screen formats. The DAL iAd template complements the suite of templates--Impulse Response, Microsite and Mini DAL--already in use by MCn. [Note: MCn, which stands for Multi Channel Network, is a media sales company that is co-owned by Foxtel, Austar, Premier Media Group and XYZ Networks and that represents 35 channels on the Foxtel and Austar platforms.] Significant production efficiencies are being achieved through the use of emuse iAd templates: production costs have been lowered and production lead-times significantly reduced. This helps drive volume and complements the linear TV advertiser business."