Cellphones bring dialogue and revenue to TV shows

Worldwide, production budgets are going down at all TV stations because advertising is down, but a blossoming genre, called "SMS TV" or "participation TV," in which viewers contribute not only their opinions and votes but also cold cash via their phones (American Idol, Big Brother), is bringing in much welcome revenue. Doreen Carvajal reports for the IHT.

"The tide of calls, televotes and text messages - billed at premium rates of more than 1 a message - are building a market that could top 750 million, or more than $900 million, in Europe by the end of the year, according to a McKinsey consulting report.

To hook viewers on their handsets, producers are focusing on universal topics like love and money, and eclectic ones like cosmetic surgery.

Some of the shows:

-- Matchmakers: The show invites viewers to send text messages for a computer to calculate the chances of a successful romantic match based just on the two first names of the couple. The show, which has now spread to 20 countries, airs on MTV's Dutch subsidiary, TMF, and receives an average of 10,000 text messages a day.

- Cheater Meter: Uses a computer model, to calculate odds of people cheating on their partner. Viewers send SMS messages containing a name, residence and additional information about the "cheater." The message is then shown live on the screen along with music videos, and another SMS message is sent back to a participant's mobile phone.

- Cosmetic Surgery Live in Britain can take a break from watching the operating room to send in camera-phone pictures of their own body parts for consultation with a surgeon. The price of discussing potential repair work with a waiting surgeon is £1, or $1.75, a minute.

- Psychic Interactive: Is an afternoon television show on the Sky channel, is also offering individual attention with video calls made from third-generation cellphones. The program appears in a split screen, allowing callers to communicate with Trevor, the Reiki master, or Rosa, the clairvoyant, while watching the show.

For M6, the second-ranked television channel in France, more than 30 percent of its total revenue of 1.2 billion now comes from Web merchandising, home shopping, CD and DVD sales and telephone and text messaging. Of that, telephone revenue makes up about a third, according to Jerôme Dillard, director of diversification for M6."

emily | 4:11 PM | SMS and Television |
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