A new breed of tv programming has arrived – shows conceived as true interactive experiences are successfully driving their viewership across various platforms, including tvs, computers and wireless devices.

Life Network’s weekly cooking series Dish It Out, which ExtendMedia helped develop, is a perfect example.

The show incorporates interactivity on the air. Host Christine Cushing refers to a flat-screen computer monitor during the broadcast and writes a column exclusively for the show’s site.

If viewers miss an episode of Dish It Out or wish to revisit a recipe, the site offers streaming video-on-demand. The video is wrapped with text outlining recipe ingredients and where they can be purchased. Through business partnerships, ExtendMedia has arranged interactive contests as well as the capability for site visitors to order ingredients.

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 from the show and get the ingredients,’ says Dave Sciuk, ExtendMedia’s executive vp business affairs and market development.

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,’ says Sciuk. ‘We’re part of the creative team.’

ExtendMedia produces its work in Toronto, and has recently closed offices in New York and Los Angeles.

•Recipe for success: Stats from Dish It Out’s website

Visitors requesting a weekly e-mail

newsletter: 3,000

% who are repeat visitors: 62

% of visitors who are viewers: 87

% who watch the show every week: 24

% who say the site ‘adds value to the programming’: 99

•Drop the Beat: an interactive series

The cbc drama Drop the Beat (from Alliance Atlantis Communications, ExtendMedia and Back Alley Film Productions), touted as North America’s first program to offer an enhanced itv experience, focuses on college students who run a hip-hop radio station. ‘It’s using the power of tv to extend brands into new media,’ says Sciuk.

The half-hour radio programs alluded to but not heard on the tv episodes are produced weekly with the actors’ involvement and streamed on the companion site.

Site visitors can purchase merchandise, including the show’s soundtrack, and send questions to the show’s characters.

-www.extend.com

-www.dish-it-out.com

-www.dropthebeat.com