Turner gives fans realtime text poll results

Text messaging has a lot of potential as a polling device but it wasn t
until Turner Sports hooked up with New Zealand-based Txtstation that
it s real potential could be realized.

This takes text voting to another level, says Lenny Daniels, Senior Vice President and Coordinating Director for TNT Sports. Turner is using the technology during its NBA telecasts, letting viewers vote on a poll question via text message. Viewers vote on items via text messaging and there is a graph on screen that shows percentages and moves in realtime as the votes come in, says Daniels.

That speed opens up some new type of applications as fans could conceivable weigh in on a myriad of game-related events. Turner has used the system for three of its NBA telecasts and has limited its use to one question per game but Daniels says after the All-star game it will consider expanding its use. It also could be used for Atlanta Braves games this spring and summer.

The great thing about this is that Txtstation systems does it all and supplies all the equipment, he adds. They give us the video and a key signal and they interface with the phone company to measure the data.