EDINBURGH, UK--Endemol, a TV production company, is looking to games and the Internet to expand its audience. Peter Cowley, managing director of digital media, Endemol UK, told delegates at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2007 that, "We are trying to capture an audience that used to be on telly, that has now moved on to other platforms: consoles, online, mobile phones."

Endemol was founded in 1994, and is based in the Netherlands. It describes itself as a major independent TV producer with subsidiaries in 25 countries including the US, Spain, and Australia. The company's shows include Big Brother, Deal Or No Deal, Fear Factor, and Gay, Straight or Taken?

Cowley gave the example of a Children's BBC show called Roar, which is set in a zoo in Kent and focuses on the day-to-day lives of the animals and keepers there. The show also had a Web site containing a Tamagotchi-style game where players build a zoo and have to visit every day to keep the animals alive. Cowley said that Endemol found something unusual had happened, "The Web site had more unique visitors than viewers of the TV show...So we built in cheat codes that would be broadcast in the middle of the TV show, to get hold of this huge audience." These cheat codes included ones which would unlock new parts of the zoo and new animals." Via GameSpot .

Labels: gaming