ITV.com plans online-only soap as part of site overhaul

by James Livesley, Media Week 21-Nov-06

ITV.com is planning to introduce user-generated content and is considering an online-only soap opera as part of a major overhaul of its website set for April next year.

It is currently developing video-on-demand for ITV.com for launch next
spring and is also laying out plans for how it can get the audience to
interact with the site.

User-generated content is high on the agenda for ITV and one proposal is

to introduce a competition where people video themselves doing

impressions of Coronation Street characters and upload it to the site.
The best impression will then be selected and the winner will take part
in a fake episode of the soap to be viewed online.

ITV would not go into details on plans for an online-only soap, but
media agencies have been sounded out on the idea and it is understood
the show would be aimed at a lunch-break audience.

The broadcaster is also to run an online competition for Emmerdale where
visitors can solve a murder storyline in the soap. Users will receive
clues each week before the murderer is revealed on TV.

ITV also hopes to take in user-generated content uploaded from mobile
phones and to make that content available on internet-enabled
phones.

Vanessa Kent, controller of online sales at ITV, who joined from online
marketing company ValueClick in July, said: "We're thinking about how we
get people to interact with ITV.com. How do we tap into the social
networking idea?"

Kent said ITV would be more active in using online to promote its
forthcoming shows, such as next year's Tycoon, which stars Peter Jones,
one of the judges from Dragons' Den. ITV will use the site to generate
contestants for the show.