Asia Television Limited (ATV) seems set to follow in the
footsteps of the UK’s ITV and other broadcasters. Bruce Vandenburg,
head of digital productions for Celador Productions has confirmed
that Celador is in preliminary talks with ATV on licensing the
on-line version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Complete Communications Corporation, Celador’s holding company,
has been working for some time on rolling out the Who wants to be a
Millionaire? game on the internet. ITV was one of the first
broadcasters to take out a licence for the on-line version.
The on-line version is expected to prove lucrative and any
licence will not come cheap. In the absence of a set licensing fee
there is likely to be some hard bargaining between Celador and ATV.
ITV is reported as having seen an 800% increase in hits on its web
site since launching its version of Millionaire. In addition to the
huge increase in web traffic the license also provides revenue
opportunities in the form of commercials. The package includes
audio-visual advertisements that must be watched by players on the
net if they are to progress through the game.
