English Entertainment
‘American Idol’ sets a record for text messaging
MUMBAI: US broadcaster Fox’s music based reality show American Idol is a great example of how the mobile can be used to create a strong connect with the viewer.
US mobile service provider Cingular Wireless has announced that it has set a new record for wireless text messaging in the fourth season of American Idol.
The company recorded more than 41.5 million text messages throughout the show’s 12-week voting period, which is believed to represent the largest volume of text messaging in a single campaign in the history of the US wireless industry.
The number of text messages in the fourth season of American Idol more than tripled the amount of text messages recorded in the 2004 season. Text messages included votes, trivia, sweepstakes entries, TXT chats, fan club and vote number reminders.
This year, Cingular’s 50 million customers had the opportunity to vote each week via text messaging for their favourite American Idol contestants, compared to 21 million customers in 2004 that were a part of AT&T Wireless.
Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless in October 2004. Cingular Wireless VP sponsorships John Burbank said, “The fourth season of ‘American Idol’ has helped to spur a wireless text messaging boom. Cingular’s success with American Idol shows that texting is becoming as common as talking on wireless phones. Our
continued success with American Idol validates our view that consumers will embrace advanced wireless services like text messaging if you give them a compelling reason to do so.”
Cingular customers had exclusive wireless access to American Idol throughout the season. It brough in new services such as TXT chats with the Idol contestants, and convenient vote number reminders that listed all of the contestants who had performed that week.
In addition, Cingular customers could connect to the show with Idol Wireless Fan Club to keep up with the latest Idol news, play Idol Trivia on
their wireless devices or download American Idol related ringtones such as the show’s theme song, or songs from past favorites Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard or Fantasia.
Mobliss provided the key technology behind American Idol text voting, the Idol Wireless Fan Club, and mobile vote reminder messages. This is Mobliss’ third consecutive year of powering text voting for American Idol. The company was awarded the “Best Wireless Campaign of 2004” at the Ad:Tech awards in November 2004 for their interactive American Idol Season Three campaign.
Cingular Wireless claims to be the largest wireless carrier in the US.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
