Endemol sweet on Sugarbabes

Новость старая, но тем не менее интересная.

Endemol has taken the wraps off its first interactive reality show shot specially for mobile phones, enlisting UK girl band the Sugarbabes as the face of Get Close To…, a format it hopes will go global.

The series will launch this Friday following a tie-up between the Big Brother producer, the Sugarbabes' label Island Records Group and mobile network operator O2.

Get Close To… will consist of 2x2' episodes each day for the next six weeks, comprising behind-the-scenes footage of the girls on tour with not-quite-reformed British boy band Take That, still missing Robbie Williams.

The Sugarbabes will shoot some of their own content using mobile phones and interactivity will be key, with a quiz and a section called Over to You, where fans can send in video of their own dance moves in the hope that the band will incorporate them into their act.

Each instalment will cost 50p and will be available as a download to O2 customers with 2.5G handsets, or streamed to those with 3G.

Get Close To… was alluded to by Imogen O'Rorke, Endemol UK's new head of mobile, at the Rose d'Or festival in Switzerland last month. It is the first format to emerge from the six-month-old division, although it was devised by Endemol International head of mobile TV and video Michiel de Gooijer, who also negotiated the partnerships with O2 and Universal.

Endemol chief creative officer Peter Bazalgette said that Get Close To… would have the highest production quality, "like any TV show," but that it would be far more interactive.

"It's wonderful that fans can now generate their own material and contribute it to this format. It’s just the beginning of mobile content but it’s really exciting," said Bazalgette.

An Endemol spokesman said the hope was that the Sugarbabes would be the first of many artists to get involved in Get Close To… and that the format would travel to other countries.

The company had some success with FanTESStic, a static picture-based soap that has made it to countries including Argentina, Australia, Italy and Mexico. Take-up of made-for-mobile video has been slower, however, with Endemol's Cellular, a soap aimed at teenage girls, proving highly successful in France but yet to find an audience elsewhere.

Jonathan Webdale
8 May 2006
© C21 Media 2006