French Television Station Earns More From SMS Than Advertising

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by: Noah Keating (via David Polinchock)

The French television station M6, by encouraging viewer participation in its programming through the solicitation of SMS messages from audience members to influence show outcomes, has managed to surpass its ad revenue with the income it is now receiving from this practice.

Indeed, as this (somewhat poorly translated) article states, SMS voting has become an integral part of French television, with 2005 revenues topping 100m Euros, and television announcers sparing no dignity in their pleas for your text message. Is taxed interactivity the solution to flagging television ad sale revenues? It certainly leapfrogs over the TIVO issue. It will be quite interesting to see how this business model evolves, especially as it gains prevalence here in the states.

Link to the referring article.

Original Post: http://blog.brandexperiencelab.org/experience_manifesto/2006/10/french_televisi.html