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BB Interactive - live feeds on TV


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Interactive TV - it's the future, or the past according to C4!

Back in 2001 one of the first TV shows to go interactive in the UK was Big Brother. It offered viewers of E4 a service of news, games, information and the ability to vote online - plus a four-screen interactive service offering two live streams from the house, plus two streams of highlights or delayed action.

The service returned with Big Brother 3, but since Big Brother 4 it's been scaled back to just one live stream.

Big Brother 6 saw E4 come to Freeview - and with it an extra feed offering Big Brother Live around the clock - meaning for the first time the majority of viewers had access to the live feed - for free!

However, Big Brother 6 came to an end and the space was used to launch a Quiz Channel on Freeview - and for the most recent Celebrity Big Brother not only did Freeview viewers lose the interactive stream, so did all Digital Satellite and Cable viewers.

This meant live streaming on TV was restricted to the hours it's broadcast on E4 - typhically from 11pm through till about 3pm the next day.

This meant the core part of the day was unavailable - and events like Jimmy Saville moving into the house - even promoted as being on E4 during the C4 show - were missed completly!

Unless of course if you subscribed to the broadband feed (just one feed, compared to at least four up to 2002) for a nice round feed!

C4 have now dropped all their red button activity (including voting I think) - stating broadband and mobile is the future! Of course they may change their minds - after all they axed Celebrity Big Brother back in 2002!

Anyhow, BBUK isn't the only country to have offered an interactive Big Brother and I've found a site which has a great selection of videos and screenshots.

http://www.broadbandbananas.com

(Note: the site says it's due for a revamp so some links may change - and also videos may be deleted - and possibly new content added).

Page 1: http://www.broadbandbananas.com/vvenhanced.html

Big Brother Greece: The Wall

Live Feeds, Text Chat, Profiles, Voting info, Rules, Popularity Polls

Page 2: http://www.broadbandbananas.com/vvenhanced2.html

Celebrity Big Brother UK: Series 2

Back in 2002 when we still had an interactive service. Includes news, voting, multi-screen - and the clip includes the opening of the series with Davina's opening line from the house and the titles.

Celebrity Big Brother South Africa

A 24-hr Big Brother channel with text service including news, profiles, tasks and a forum

Page 3: http://www.broadbandbananas.com/vvenhanced3.html

Big Brother UK: Series 3

Again from 2002. A virtually identical layout to the one above, but with a different design in keeping with the BB3 logo / colour-scheme.

Loft Story France

News, voting and link to PPV 24/7 stream for the show that's widely regarded as France's Big Brother - though the format leads to a winning couple.

Big Brother UK: Series 2

The first attempt at an Interactive Big Brother service. Again similar in layout to the other UK versions, but a different colour scheme and design in keeping with the look of BB2.

Games: http://www.broadbandbananas.com/vvgames.html

Examples of the interactive Big Brother game available to UK viewers on Sky Digital.

These pages include alot of other content, including similar services for other reality shows like Fame Academy, The Bar and Survivor.

Going back to where I started - and though it looks unlikely there will be any interactive service accompanying Big Brother UK this year, there is a rumour (and it's one that occurs annually to be honest) that C4 will launch a premium subscription interactive service, offering an uncensored* pin-protected feed live from the house.

* except for libel issues of course!

A couple more links regarding Big Brother Interactive in the UK:

http://www.iemmys.tv/itvi/archive/feature/...2%20-%2025.html

Some news on Big Brother 4's Interactive Service. It seems they did have a multi-screen service like BB2 and BB3, though slightly revamped, so it must have been BB5 when it was given up.

(Scroll down - second article from bottom!)

http://www.broadbandbananas.com/news3.html

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