Cellcast Launches Bid2Win on Sky - the UK's First Live Interactive Reverse Auction TV Show

Cellcast Launches Bid2Win on Sky - the UK's First Live Interactive Reverse Auction TV Show

LONDON, March 15/PRNewswire/ -- The Cellcast Group, a global provider of participation TV applications and programming, today launched Bid2Win, its new live interactive reverse auction TV show, broadcast every evening in the UK on the Game Network (Sky channel 172).

Bid2Win takes participation television to a new level, enabling viewers take an active role in a dynamic real-time auction using their mobile phone as the 'backchannel'. Each day, high-value and desirable items can be bought for pennies by submitting the lowest unique bid via SMS.

"It's a compelling interactive format for a mass audience," said Mahesh Ramachandra, Cellcast Group Head of International Business Development. "In a reverse auction, instead of prices going up and up and out of reach, prices stay so low that everyone can participate with confidence."

Bid2Win is an evolution of a highly successful format pioneered by Cellcast. Reverse auctions first gained popularity on the Internet, and Cellcast developed the concept as a live SMS-driven interactive television show with Star TV in India last autumn. The resulting show received over 6.7 million bids, becoming the world's largest interactive reverse auction. In December 2004 a similar format was launched with Lebanese partner Future TV, and proved so popular across the Middle East and North Africa that the show was extended beyond the Ramadan holiday.

Cellcast's participation TV formats are scalable from small satellite channels to major terrestrial broadcasters, suitable for all countries, languages and cultures, and are generating significant revenues for its broadcast partners in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The company's proprietary programming content captures new telephony-based pay-to-participate revenue streams that are independent of subscription income and advertising.

The Cellcast Group's applications and programming are widely distributed on major channels and platforms worldwide, including Sky in the UK; Canal +, France 2 and 3 in France; Future TV in the Middle East; Star TV in India; and across China and South-East Asia on AsiaSat 3S.

The Cellcast Group is a global leader in the provision of interactive mobile content and participation television applications in the fast-growing multi-platform digital entertainment sector. The Group directly serves both industry and consumers through leveraging TV as a contextual platform to drive new revenue streams in an environment transformed by the accelerating convergence of television, IT and telecommunications.

Source: Cellcast Group

Contact: Mahesh Ramachandra, telephone: +44-(0)207-190-0300, email: mahesh@cellcastinteractive.tv

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