Free TV coming to a PC near you soon - but at what cost?

itv.com unveiled as most comprehensive TV site on the web

ITV today unveiled the new itv.com as the most comprehensive commercial website offered by any major broadcaster in the world.

The new site will go live to consumers within weeks and will offer services including:

Live streaming of ITV’s channels
30 day catch-up service
Best of ITV Archive
Exclusive behind the scenes content
Made for broadband commissions
User-generated content and news services
Broadband games

The site will have industry leading functionality with 'click and watch' technology and instant free access, with no complicated software downloads.

Michael Grade, Executive Chairman of ITV said:

"Today we are combining the best of TV with the best of the web to create a service unrivalled by any other commercial broadcaster, anywhere in the world.

"Some are already streaming their channels, some are providing catch-up, and some building their archive, but ITV.com will provide all three.

"itv.com provides a compelling free service to consumers and dynamic online opportunities for our advertisers. This launch is a major step in ITV's development."

Jeff Henry, Director of ITV Consumer said:

"ITV is now in a unique position among commercial broadcasters to use the internet to support its broadcast activities.

"Together with the continued expansion of ITV Local, our regional broadband TV service, and the growth of Friends Reunited we now have an unparallel online presence and are well placed to further exploit the growing online advertising market."

Annelies Van Den Belt, Managing Director of ITV Broadband said:

"We have assembled the best team in the industry to create the new itv.com and I am hugely proud of what we have achieved.

"We are launching to consumers shortly with a fully integrated marketing campaign, built around the concept of Total Freedom of Entertainment."

Key features

Free & Easy To UseITV has developed industry-leading 'click and watch' technology with the ITV media player displayed prominent on every page, giving instant access to streaming, catch-up and the best of the ITV archive.

ITV's newly developed interactive Electronic Programme Guide can be customised by favourites or genres and will send out email and text reminders before the show airs.

Exclusive Content
We have employed a team of 40 online content editors and multimedia producers to work closely with our channel commissioners and programme makers to bring the best of ITV to ITV.com. Our teams are working together to deliver 360 degree commissioning, working across TV, broadband, and mobile.

ITV.com will offer unprecedented access to the very best ITV content, organised by genre to cover news, drama, entertainment, sport, lifestyle and soaps with video rich content, first look promos, and exclusive preview and interview packages.

Viewers will be able to interact with the cast and crew of the hit soaps via live chats, behind the scenes interviews and on set blogs as well as access to exclusive, never before aired, scenes. Our 'Celebrity Playlists' will help viewers pick the shows to watch from the 'Best of ITV' archive.

Made For Broadband
We have commissioned exclusive made for broadband content, launching with Web Lives, a documentary collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Roger Graef of Films of Record.

Web Lives is an innovative new daily show with members of the public documenting their lives in a series of short 3-minute episodes, providing a unique snapshot of life on the web in 2007. (See Web Lives below)

User Generated Content – Uploaded
We are placing user generated content (UGC) at the heart of the site, building on ITV News' strong track record in UGC news gathering.

With Uploaded anyone can become a citizen correspondent, commenting and submitting their own 'witness' news clips to www.itv.com/news or emailing their pictures and videos to uploaded@itn.com. (See News Uploaded below)

Sports
Sports fans will enjoy an unparalleled football, rugby, boxing and cycling package including live Champions League, UEFA Cup, Rugby World Cup and Tour De France coverage and highlights.

ITV.com will feature columns and punditry from major sports stars, including David Coulthard's Formula 1 column. And coming in 2008, all the excitement of the FA Cup on ITV, ITV.com and ITV Mobile.

Advertisers
As the UK's largest commercial broadcaster ITV has unrivalled experience in providing quality content to deliver maximum reach for our advertisers. Using the latest technology online, we are able to offer flexible ad delivery systems to our advertisers, including clickable video ads, video pre-roll, bespoke advertising around non-live content, sponsorship of made for broadband content, and banner ads.

Broadband Games
By combining archive footage with new audio recordings, ITV is bringing some of the best game shows of the 1980s and 90s back to life on itv.com.

Broadband versions of Blockbuster, Catchphrase, Countdown and Family Fortunes will allow viewers to join in with the legendary presenters and play and win real money.  (See Fingers On The Buzzers below)


Web Lives
ITV has created stories that will be exclusively available itv.com

ITV today unveils Web Lives, ITV's first ever made for broadband show, at www.itv.com.

Streaming daily at 1pm in three-minute episodes, Web Lives is an innovative new reality-diary show created by award-winning filmmaker Roger Graef, that reveals the touching, funny and often shocking ways the internet shapes our lives.

Combining the quality of television documentary with the interactivity and reach of the internet, Web Lives gives members of the British public the chance to document their lives in a series of short episodes, providing a snapshot of the true voice of Britain in 2007.

Coming live to itv.com soon, every day a different character-led documentary will be streamed, based on one of five connecting themes; musicians, cyber celebs, online daters, social networkers and Second Lifers.  If you miss an episode, keep up with all the action through regular updates and catch ups.

The programme will simultaneously follow five sets of contributors from varying backgrounds, who are each in some way involved in the internet, bringing together all the humour and pathos of real life, both online and offline. 

The characters vary between a young, anti cool, electric-indie-rock band preparing to launch their first single using the internet to drum up support, to a student midwife who spends her spare time as a Second Lifer on the net. Her avatar - the pink-haired, sexy Sally Soliel - runs one of the most popular pubs in Second Life - Little Britain!

The three-minute episodes will give viewers an exclusive insight into the different face of life online, with compelling characters, thorny relationships and some great moments of jeopardy.

Roger Graef, creator of Web Lives says:

"Viewers are increasingly consuming television in bitesize chunks to fit in with their often busy lifestyles. Being able to tell real life stories in this new exciting way will shape the future of TV.

"This is storytelling for the 21st Century - telling the real stories of a cross section of characters as they live their lives online."

Annelies Van Den Belt, MD, Broadband, ITV:

"This is an ITV first and is a central part of our commitment to delivering world class content online.

"We are delighted to be working with the best storytellers in the business and some wonderful characters set to become household names."

Web Lives is a Films of Record production for itv.com
Series Producer: Vicky Evans
Production Manager: Michelle Galvin

News Uploaded

TV News to create UK network of citizen correspondents on itv.com

ITV News is placing citizen journalism at the very heart of its editorial agenda and is today launching a new website - Uploaded.

Uploaded will create the UK's first nationwide network of citizen correspondents who can shape TV news coverage on a daily basis.

It will be a key part of itv.com offering a real step-change in the way broadcasters incorporate user-generated content (UGC) into their programmes.

For the first time, viewers' contributions will not just be an add-on to coverage of the big stories, but they will become an integral part of all three ITV News bulletins, every day.

Uploaded will help create a huge network of Citizen Correspondents and serve as a platform for national debates. Citizen Correspondents will be able to register directly through ITV's new broadband service on www.itv.com to upload their mobile or webcam clips to the website's Daily Debate or they can email their pictures and videos to uploaded@itv.com.

Registered users will receive daily emails from the ITV News team, inviting them to contribute and have their say on the big issue of the day. There will also be an Uploaded Forum, where users can comment on other members' clips or views.

The best uploaded clips from the website will then be aired on ITV News bulletins on ITV1 to offer a fresh perspective, drive debates and offer a real reflection of the nation's mood on anything ranging from ASBOs and bullying to election campaigns and the state of the National Health Service.

The Uploaded section of itv.com will also deliver a constantly updated feed of the day's top ten stories with both text and video, as well as the opportunity to re-watch news reports shown on ITV News bulletins and extra content such video diaries from ITV News correspondents.

A Citizen Exclusives section will give everyone a platform to contact the ITV News team directly if they have captured amazing exclusive footage.

In addition, the website will feature a Caught On Camera section, where members of the public can share clips such as freaky weather with other users.

Uploaded has been developed and will be run by ITN's multimedia division ITN On, who will also produce bespoke ITV News bulletins to be delivered directly to mobile subscribers.

The ITN On team will work closely with the ITV News' editorial team to produce compelling online and mobile content and drive daily debates.

Deborah Turness, Editor of ITV News, said:

"ITV News is taking citizen journalism one step further by placing it at the core of our news programmes every day.

"It's time to recognise the potency and the value of the public's desire to participate, and to enable our viewers to inform and affect our news agenda.

"Our Citizen Correspondents won't just be an add-on. They will become an integral part of our programmes, complimenting the coverage offered by our team of award-winning correspondents."

Annelies Van Den Belt, Managing Director, ITV Broadband said:

"The new itv.com service is only going to be successful if our viewers feel they can be a part of it. Uploaded puts our viewers at the heart of our new site with an opportunity to make and shape the news in a real and tangible way.

"We are delighted to be working closely with ITV News on this project as they have such a strong track record in using UGC to help break big news stories."

How To Use Uploaded

The online service launches in the next few weeks, with viewers able to upload their content at itv.com/news.

To become one of ITV News' Citizen Correspondents and contribute to the Daily Debate, users are invited to film their messages on their mobile phones or webcams.

They can send their clips either by uploading them directly to the website once they have registered, emailing their views to uploaded@itv.com or by sendingclips directly to the Uploaded MMS number 07786 201313.

To contact the ITV News team directly for big exclusives, Citizen Correspondents can call the ITV News Exclusive hotline on 0800 181 580 or email exclusives@itv.com.
 

Fingers on the buzzers!
itv.com is asking you to get your fingers on the buzzers and get set to play exclusive cult classic games online.  Choose from Blockbusters, Catchphrase, Countdown and Family Fortunes.

If you've watched these timeless family classics over the years and shouted the answer out at the telly, or thought you could do better than the contestants, now's your chance!

Combining original archive footage and new audio to provide realistic video interaction and feedback, itv.com will bring these unforgettable 80s and 90s shows closer to the viewer than ever before with the chance to win money and also get their names on a leaderboard to really fuel competition.

Viewers and fans alike will be able to join legendary presenter Bob Holness on the Blockbusters Hotspot, find out what Vernon Kay's survey says in Family Fortunes and ask Carol Voderman for a consonant on Countdown as the viewer is put directly into the heart of the show using broadband technology.

The games have been developed and designed in partnership with leading broadband content specialists JailDog to look and feel like a real programme.

Playing is easy; gamers simply purchase credits via SMS or PayPal in bundles of three, up to 50 credits. A single game costs about 20 to 35p. Players can also choose a 'try for free' option to test their skills first.

Annelies Van Den Belt, MD Broadband, ITV comments:

"This is a great new service from itv.com which puts viewers right at the heart of the entertainment experience.

"We've taken some of the country's most iconic gameshows and moved them to the next level so that now instead of just 'playing along' with your favourite television gameshow at home, visitors to the site can join in and win!"

So if you're ready to beat Mr Chips and 'say what you see' on Catchphrase or solve the Countdown Conundrum, then join in the fun now at ITV.com.

Notes:
Players need to register with itv.com before they can play a game (either a free game or a pay to play game).

Free To Play - Try For Free
Once registered with itv.com each player will be able to play each game three times for free

Pay To Play - Play To Win
£1 = 3 credits
£5 = 20 credits
£10 = 50 credits

Payment is via PayPal or SMS.

About JailDog
JailDog is a leading provider of broadband content. With a heritage firmly rooted in Nintendo/Sony and Microsoft console game development, JailDog is dedicated to raising the bar in this niche sector and is currently working on several global projects. In 2005 JailDog™ won the Best Use Of Broadband BIMA award for its work with Celador International on the broadband adaptation of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.