Many producers of traditional tv programs have turned to a dot-com company to forge some kind of presence for themselves on the Internet. In the case of Life Network’s weekly cooking series Dish It Out, however, itv company ExtendMedia and producer Alliance Atlantis Communications conceived an interactive multimedia experience from the start.

Not only does the show inform viewers about its website (www.dish-it-out.com, launched with funding from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund), but it incorporates interactivity on the air. Chef Christine Cushing hosts the program with a flat-screen computer monitor on set which she refers to during the broadcast, responding to comments and questions regarding ‘Christine’s Column,’ which she writes exclusively for the site.

If viewers miss an episode of Dish It Out, now in its third season, or wish to revisit a particular recipe, the site offers selected clips through streaming video-on-demand. The video is wrapped with text outlining recipe ingredients and where certain foods can be purchased. Through partnerships with businesses such as Peachtree and KitchenAid, ExtendMedia has also arranged interactive contests as well as the capability for site visitors to order ingredients and have them delivered.

According to Dave Sciuk, Toronto-based ExtendMedia’s executive vp business affairs and market development, the company has also ‘cooked up’ a wireless feature for Dish It Out.

‘If you’re in a grocery store and you remember Christine had this fabulous dish, using your wap [wireless application protocol] enabled cell phone you can call up recipes branded from the show and get the ingredients,’ he explains.

Sciuk adds that, as with many Internet services, the revenue stream for this type of innovation is very much up in the air.

‘One of the models could involve sponsorship or a co-operative deal where there is no charge for access to the information,’ he says. ‘It drives the audience relationship for broadcast through other media, which is obviously beneficial as you extend sponsorship out. It also has retail ties that can help underwrite the cost of producing that kind of content.’

Although successfully launched, the wireless feature has not been actively marketed. However, it did achieve its primary objective of proving ExtendMedia can deliver information to multiple devices – tv platforms, wap and the website – from a single source of data.

With the tremendous growth of the Internet as a content delivery method, the process of conceiving Dish It Out may represent the future of program development – creation with consciousness of the various distribution platforms.

‘We work with the producers of the show really closely as they’re developing the season so the interactive elements and new media applications are built into the content, and we’re not grasping onto something somebody’s already created,’ Sciuk says. ‘We’re part of the creative team.’

So far ExtendMedia, Life and aac have been pleased with the online venture. Three thousand site visitors have requested to be on the weekly e-mail newsletter subscription list, and a recent visitor survey indicates the site has contributed to growth of the overall brand: 87% of site visitors have watched the tv show, with 24% doing so every week; 99% of site visitors who responded believe the site ‘adds value to the programming,’ and 62% of Dish-it-out.com visitors are repeat visitors.

From techies to creatives

ExtendMedia began as Digital Renaissance a decade ago, its maiden project being the setup of a network enabling museum-goers in Toronto to interact with the display at a museum in Ottawa. The company went through the cd-rom evolution into Web services, focusing on media and entertainment, in the process developing proprietary software which it uses on in-house productions. It has licensed this software to RealNetworks as part of a tool package available to new media producers.

ExtendMedia shifted its attention to interactive television a couple of years ago, balancing its technology engineering history with the creative side of storytelling and design. Employing content, technology and marketing professionals, the company produces the majority of its work in its Toronto office. It is also trying to make inroads in the u.s. market, and isn’t shy about playing up the exchange rate as an attractive feature to American business. It has set up offices in New York and Los Angeles, where it is represented through Creative Artists Agency.

‘We’re working in l.a. right now with producers and show runners for shows that are either on the air or in development,’ Sciuk comments. ‘We’ve had exposure to really well-known brands and talent who are looking forward to using new media in their stories in the next generation of television. I think [in the coming months] we’re going to see a lot of deployment with digital set-top boxes enabled to have a higher degree of interactivity.’

While the present goal for broadcasters is to devise distinct features for their television and Internet entities to drive viewers back and forth, Sciuk sees a more connected future for the two media. Digital Convergence, a Santa Cruz, California-based multimedia company with whom ExtendMedia is involved, is at the forefront of this technology.

Digital Convergence’s system allows viewers to link their computer to their television, with audio cues in the tv broadcast signal directing them to a related web page. Sciuk thinks this is a convenient and tactful way to get viewers online, as it does not interfere with the original broadcast and lets audiences take advantage of the Web offering if they care to.

Sciuk suggests a good example for this application would be a news program, where individual stories entail substantial background information.

‘With all the assets available for an investigative report, only two minutes are on the air,’ Sciuk says. ‘If somebody was interested in the subject matter, this technology would direct them straight to a web page with all the research the tv network wants to put up. So what is a two-minute exposure on the evening news could turn into an [in-depth] two-hour experience for an interested viewer.’

Meanwhile, viewers of Dish It Out who subscribe to Microsoft Webtv receive on-screen links through itv pages on their tv screens. These viewers receive enhanced on-screen program information via their remote control, allowing them to call up recipes and interact with the host.

The capability of linking to a companion website with Webtv is also a feature of the cbc drama Drop the Beat, coproduced by aac, ExtendMedia and Back Alley Film Productions. The program, touted as North America’s first to offer an enhanced itv experience, focuses on college students who run a hip-hop radio station.

Sciuk believes the show’s subject matter makes it particularly conducive to a fresh online experience. The half-hour radio programs alluded to but not heard on the tv episodes are produced on a weekly basis with the actors’ involvement and streamed at www.dropthebeat.com.

‘The radio content on the Web is original,’ Sciuk says. ‘It’s not just repurposing music created for the tv program. It’s using the power of tv to extend brands into new media, and there are a number of opportunities associated with that.’

One of the opportunities the site opens up is in the area of merchandising. Site visitors can purchase hip-hop merchandise there, including the show’s soundtrack.

Dropthebeat.com also offers a chat line with a twist. Surfers can go online and interact with one another as well as send questions, which will be answered by the show’s characters ‘in character.’ (Sciuk says the actual actors do participate.) Sciuk believes the issue-driven nature of the program can make for some pretty compelling viewer participation.

Some see the rise of all this interactivity as a threat to quality programming, in that too much audience input makes shows more of a manifestation of a marketing survey than a storyteller’s vision. Also, the one-click e-commerce of the Web might turn shows into long-form advertisements. Sciuk believes broadcasters must carry over already-established standards into the uncharted domain of itv.

‘Our vision of interactive tv or other devices for extending a program is not to change the storyline or the ending,’ Sciuk says. ‘But if you decide you want to get up, lean forward and find out about a character or places where you can buy clothing you find appealing in the show you just watched, you’ll be able to. It will be entirely up to the viewer.’ *

-www.extend.com

-www.dish-it-out.com

-www.dropthebeat.com