Finalists revealed for Deutsche Telekom's Interactive TV Award

July 17, 2008 - Deutsche Telekom has revealed the three finalists selected for its Interactive TV Award, a competition aimed at individuals and SMEs in the German and international developer community with the intention of showcasing, and ultimately rewarding, the most innovative ideas for interactive TV applications.

Out of 105 entries, ten made it to the second round with each receiving €50,000 to further develop their prototype ideas, and the three finalists now receive an additional €100,000 as they enter the final round, with the potential prize of seeing their idea deployed on Deutsche Telekom's "T-Home Entertain" IPTV service.

The three finalists selected are CreamBOTS of Germany, whose entry is a live media recommendation network called "Networked World"; 3-frogs of the Netherlands, whose "FamilyFun" concept aims to connect users with friends and family by providing a cross-media platform to share photos, video and stories, as well as calendars and address books; and finally Trenfield/Regner of Austria/Switzerland, whose instant information service "Independence of Time and Place" provides information relevant to the programme or movie currently being watched via unobtrusive popups, with viewers getting links to related websites, shopping lists for recipes and other information.

The official jury which selected the three finalists was comprised of an external team of "distinguished and highly respected" specialists from TV, IT and media, including: Achim Berg, General Manager of Microsoft Deutschland; Stefan Goedecke, Managing Director of Auerbach Verlag und Infodienste, Digital Fernsehen magazine; Prof. Dr. Thomas Hess, Director of the Institute for Information Systems and New Media, LMU Munich; and Robert Amlung, Director of Digital Strategies for ZDF.

The three finalists are expected to present their prototypes to the jury in January 2009. More information on the three finalists and their concepts can be viewed here