Interactive Vision at Vision TV

[Emma]

VisionTV has launched an ambitious interactive venture as part of its broadcast of the family drama series Everwood.

Called The Everwood Live Experience, it offers the opportunity to participate in online polls, to view and share the results with others, and to discuss the show with friends. The site also provides access to exclusive online content, including contests and cast interviews. The primary target audience for the site is teen girls aged 12 to 17.

Everwood Live was developed for VisionTV by Ottawa-based online branded entertainment agency Fuel Industries.

"Everwood is a significant acquisition for VisionTV: an acclaimed series that appeals to our existing audience and promises to attract new viewers as well," described Suzanna Mandryk, VisionTV's Vice President, Marketing and Communications.

"Because the show already has a following from its first run on network television, we felt the best way to refresh the property was to offer a new and unique experience - to create a social space online where fans can share their thoughts about the program."

Among the key features of the Everwood Live Experience is the opportunity for users to email the weekly poll to friends and invite their responses.

Added Mandryk: "Adding a viral component was always an integral part of the plan: it enables us to reach viewers who might not yet associate Everwood with VisionTV. The experience and insight of Fuel Industries was particularly important in developing this aspect of the experience."

Mandryk said VisionTV regards Everwood Live as a venture that will evolve and expand during the show's run on the network, continually incorporating new features to keep fans engaged.

Said Mike Burns, CEO and Chief Creative Officer for Fuel Industries: "Everwood's demographics are serious multi-taskers: they're surfing while they're watching television, even talking with their friends about the shows they're watching. Everwood Live is a great example of how a network can harness that behaviour and use it to create a new life for the show online."

VisionTV holds exclusive Canadian cable specialty television rights to Everwood, which originally premiered on the now defunct WB in 2002. The series currently airs on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET. Everwood is also slated to run in VisionTV's popular family block, Mondays to Thursdays at 7 p.m. ET, starting Nov. 6.

Mandryk said Everwood's distributor, Warner Bros. International Television, has been strongly supportive of the new interactive venture. "We're tremendously grateful to work with a partner like Warner Bros. that has granted us the latitude to explore new creative avenues for marketing this property."

VisionTV, an S-VOX company, is Canada's multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster, dedicated to programming that celebrates diversity and promotes understanding and tolerance among people of different faiths and cultures.

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Source: http://www.broadcastermagazine.com/i...issue=10122006