Similar to the French Star Academy format, (see below) Operacion Triunfo follows a group of people through the trials and tribulations of becoming a star - with a major difference. The winner of the show will go on to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest. This magazine style application, accessible from a banner call to action - or from the OK Plus portal - provides rich background on the show.

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Now in its second series, and with an updated application, Banzai allows the viewer at home to interact with the show through betting. Banzai's simple concept and lively on air presence (I'm keen to see what our Japanese readers make of this) continues to pull in viewers.

For those of you not familiar with the format, the programme is a game of probability where viewers get to bet on one of 3 or 4 outcomes.

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It would be wrong to say this service is a copy of Sky News Active as the BBC have been providing a text based interactive news service on digital TV for a number of years now. However the addition of multiple video streams accessible throughout the day makes good use of the BBC's extensive resources. This application features a loop of News Headlines, Sports News, Weather and more in depth coverage of a live or breaking news story.

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The Discovery Channel's revival of this classic British quiz show has been enhanced by the development of a full synchronised interactive quiz which the viewer can play along with. Timing in this application is critical and the opportunity to answer is taken away immediately once the contestant gives his own answer in the video.

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MTV's European Music Awards in recent years have put the focus on local artists - . For the category "Best French Act" MTV have employed an interactive voting application created using NPTV's Bando tool.

Calls are charged at FF 2.22 per call. Approx 40 cents (US$).

The application is noteworthy for its clear and simple design and because of the element of synchronisation involved in the service.

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This interactive portal broadcast on Australian digital TV platform Austar can be called up in a semi-transparent half screen mode by hitting the OK button.

The service is an extension of content that can currently be found on the web - but offers a distinctive "Message Machine Nickerticker" and other news/info types of services.

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Nickelodeon UK has taken a highly simple approach to interactivity running this voting application during the UK half term school holidays. Watch your own week allows the viewers to choose the next programme to air on the channel - and offers multiple methods including telephone, SMS and now interactive TV.

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In sharp contrast to the simple voting application of Nickelodeon (which has a limited lifespan of a couple of weeks) the Studio Disney application is an all singing, all dancing mix of voting, competitions and content presented as a full screen application - with the video resized to 1/4 screen. Perhaps rather worrying for parents -the cost of voting or entering a competition can range from 25 - 50 UK pence - and there are 3 opportunities to dial in using this application. A figure that could add up quite considerably on a daily basis.

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Formats, formats, formats!

Its Loft Story, Popstars & Big Brother all rolled into one! Canal Satellite viewers in France can follow the lives of a group of prospective stars who are living their lives 24 hours a day in front of the camera all for just 70 French Francs (approx $10) which covers the 3 months the transmissions will run on channel 89.

The voting application is provided using IDP's RegieLine.

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Many of the more fashionable programming formats modelled on shows like Big Brother are ripe for exploitation in the interactive space.

This application to accompany the "Baren" (The Bar) programme on TV3 (Viasat Platform) allows the viewer to browse the profiles of the show's participants.

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Discovery continue to offer simple supporting information to their programming on the Sky Digital platform, in this instance with one of their most sucessful strands. - shark programming. In this service, launched by the remote's red button you can find out trivia about sharks and test your knowledge in a quiz. The application also offers programming highlights during this special weekend.

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Lorraine Kelly is a UK "daytime" TV presenter. Her recently launched magazine programme on Sky One features a simple quiz with randomly selected showbiz trivia questions.

Get 5 out of 6 right and the STB connects (at a whopping 75 pence per minute!) for a further round of questions and the chance to win the prize.

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Heavily promoted in the press and on-air, Discovery's Elvis provided background information for special documentary programming on the 20th anniversary of Elvis's death.

As with many Enhanced TV services on the Sky Platform - a 1/4 screen video window was chosen rather than overlays on the main video.

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Sky News Active has recently been upgraded with a voting application and the whole application launches much more cleanly these days.

Viewers use their remote control to register their vote on a major news issue. Calls go to the backend via a Premium Rate Telephone number - costing the subscriber approx 30 pence and generating revenue for Sky.

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Similar in format to "Big Brother" Survivor was one of the key prime time programmes of ITV's Spring/Autumn schedule. Carlton Active, the creators of the service suceeded in pushing the terrible MHEG system used by the UK DTT platform to its very limits, particularly in the browsable profiles which seems to work rather effectively.

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The Sky Digital enhanced version of Big Brother launched late, a few weeks into the run of the last series.

Channel Four's "E4" channel carried some 18 hours per day of the programme and this application was carried alongside for the duration of the series.

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