May 14, 2004
"The Spot" is back, on mobile phones
Launched on the Internet and closed in the late nineties, the Internet's first Soap, The Spot is back - on your (Sprint) mobile phone.
Sprint's new version of "The Spot" will be the first time original content of this sort has been made available for wireless phones in the United States, billed as a "reality drama", will be streaming to handsets on Sprint's PCS Vision network, reports infoSync World.
"The Spot" first launched on the web back in 1995 as a web-delivered episodic web site / show centered around the daily lives of "five twenty-somethings living in a seven-bedroom beach house in Santa Monica. A new series of same show (presumably with a new cast by now) will now be available in interactive form on select Sprint PCS Vision phones.
See other innovative ways television networks around the world have used text messaging and picture messaging on television shows:
-- 'Hollyoaks' to pull viewers into storylines using SMS - A UK soap opera offers the series' fans the option to sign up on their Website to receive daily text messages from the show's characters, allowing the viewer to "be one step ahead with the latest on all the big storylines before they hit the screen".
-- Soapy secrets via SMS - Soap Confidential, gives ABC soap fans sneak preview information from their favorite characters through premium text messaging service.
-- Voted sexiest soap actor by SMS - US network channel ABC employed text messaging to have fans vote for the sexiest male actor of soap opera 'All my Children'.
-- «InYrShoes» - The plot of a UK soap called «InYrShoes» is not decided by scriptwriters, but by viewers sending text messages at the end of each episode, featuring a cliffhanger or dilemma.
-- American Idol sways Americans into texting -- Nearly 2.5 million AT&T Wireless customers cast their votes by SMS for their favorite American Idol contestant.
-- Jong-Zuid: First picture soap opera for mobile phones The Netherlands came up with the first Picture Soap, Jong-Zuid, starring famous soap opera actors.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/2004/05/003830.htm