Telescope and Akamai Deliver Multichannel Voting Platform
Telescope, the leader in participation media services and Akamai Technologies, Inc. the leading service provider for accelerating content and applications online, today announced that the companies have provided the first multichannel voting platform for participation media events, part of a growing industry that has become more significant to broadcasters. The two companies have successfully delivered the application, which enables audience members of popular participation TV shows to send votes and interact via the Web, through their mobile devices, and using landline voice calls.
FOX is among the first broadcasters to use the new Telescope-Akamai platform, which will be offered to a wide range of TV clients that demand real-time audience interaction through a robust multichannel environment.
FOX's 'On the Lot,' which concluded its run in August, tallied entries from landline, wireless, and online participants in real-time, using a powerful application, the Telescope Integrated Media Engine (TIME), for integrating Web votes into the overall tally. This multichannel capability provides viewers with greater levels of choice in how and where they interact with a TV show, and makes their interactions relevant. The combined Telescope-Akamai platform provides broadcasters with a robust, scalable set of technology services that can manage live events.
Participation Television (P-TV) is a growing format, which generated more than $300 million in revenue in the more mature UK market. In the US, Americans used their mobile phones to text nearly 35 million times in the first quarter of 2007, generating roughly $35 million in revenue from premium SMS, according to Telephia. As recently released network schedules indicate, P-TV is of growing importance to broadcasters, engaging audiences to watch and interact with programs. Using the Telescope-Akamai solution, broadcasters can now add mass-scale Web interactivity to consumers' choices.
"Our experiences with broadcasters have demonstrated that viewers are extremely loyal when voting online. We have delivered a rich interactive media platform for audience response that can be flexibly tailored to a wide range of participation media applications," said Bill Wheaton, Vice President of Digital Media, Akamai Technologies. "The Telescope platform is one of the most complete participation media platforms in the industry and by leveraging both companies' solutions, joint customers get the reliability needed when investing in high-priority social media initiatives. We look forward to continuing to help our joint customers take advantage of the benefits of Participation Television."
