Germany and the USA Money Madness

As promised I've found a bit more on the participation TV experience from Germany – see a report here.
Looking at various links I see also that the USA has had a run of a show called Midnight Money Madness which was on TBS (Turner which is part of AOLWarner) but according to the TBS website it is no longer ‘airing’. The programme was produced by Endemol and involved making an initial qulaifying text message.

If anyone know more about this one please e-mail to
ITVplaySurvey@btopenworld.com

more background

It’s another factor in the process around TV participation that whereas sometime ago the party with answers to give would be the broadcaster. With the change in broadcasting structures and a move to a more publisher/broadcaster (as opposed to producer/broadcaster) there are often other companies involved. One of the big companies in the saga around questionable procedures at ITV has been the interactive TV platform provider Opera Interactive Technology.



Often these companies are operating in several markets using a "schtick" that is described by paidcontent.org as being to –
"..air rudimentary on-screen word or number games, invite viewers to call a premium-rate line with the answer, then sit back and rake in the cash."


As I mentioned in the last couple of posts this is not a UK only format and I see that in Germany the call volumes are incredible so much so that German broadcaster NTV has links to a 1,000-member forum where German viewers pool their experiences and knowledge, I shall look into this and see what I can find.

If you know anything try e-mailing me at Itvplaysurvey@btopenworld.com

It's worldwide

I was interested today to hear from Rustum Kozain in South Africa who tells me that the Participation TV virus is active out there too.


I'm hoping that he'll provide more details it seems that the game Rustum describes is an SMS based one which has a prize draw (so sounding very much like a lottery) but it also surprisingly uses the tactics that some games used here.

That is where some answers are unexpected and not the ones that you might consider correct - perhaps this is used to attract people who think that they are going to share the angle that the quiz setter has and thus increase their chances of winning.

The show there is called 'SMS to win' let me know if you have heard of it or other worldwide examples - ITVPaysurvey@btopenworld.com

Finding links

ITV's recent Timeline

Since ITV Play was launched last year a number of things have happened to the business of ITV, while not saying that there is an absolute link between them all I intend to produce a timeline showing what I consider to be factors in ITV’s business performance – they will be related to the ITV share price (also the sector performance).

The sort of things I will include (I hope are) the media coverage – the headline audience figures announcements (like the arrival of Michael Grade). I do not seek to imply cause and effect but hope that the terrain that the research is playing out across will be registered.

If you can think of factors in ITV over the last 12-18 months that are of significance drop a line to itvplaysurvey@btopenworld.com –thanks Tim