Telescope and Akamai deliver first Mass-Scale Multichannel Voting Platform for participation Media industry

Telescope and
Akamai Technologies, Inc. the service provider for accelerating content and applications
online 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.”

Telescope
was the first company to deliver a toll-free, mobile, and Web voting solution
in 2005, for Discovery Channel’s ‘Greatest American;’ and the company has been
a pioneer in the P-TV industry, delivering the first mass-scale voting
application, the first U.S. call t.v. application, and the first participation
t.v. application in syndication.

“The web
is a very important tool for our broadcast partners. We wanted to make
sure we provided this channel to content owners when they were planning
interactivity, and together with Akamai, we are providing our customers with
the choice of platform, demonstrating the benefits of a truly multichannel
solution” said Troy Sample, CEO of Telescope. “We have successfully proven,
with our campaign implementations, that in-show integration with TV and the Web
provides for a compelling way to attract audience interaction from the Web, as
well as from mobile and land-line. As best-of-breed partners, Telescope
and Akamai can deliver customers a fully customized solution for audience
response. We have learned a great deal from our work in the European market;
namely, that technological innovation and creative license can co-exist, and
ensure the integrity of the overall P-TV experience. We believe that
viewers need to be able to interact with their favorite shows via the channel
of their choice, how they want and where they want.”

Executive-produced
by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg, ‘On the Lot’ gave aspiring filmmakers
from around the world the chance to earn a $1-million development deal at
DreamWorks. After a global search and over 12,000 submissions, a group of
talented filmmakers were selected from the applicants. These finalists were
brought to

Hollywood,
where each week they unveiled their short films in the hopes of finally getting
their “big break.”