The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced the winners of the annual Emmy Awards for enhanced or interactive programming at an event in Hollywood. For the first time the finalists included broadband services.
TiVo receives the award for the enhanced or interactive programming for television category. The TiVo service, which has become synonymous with the digital video recorder product category, was a popular winner. The other finalists were AOL music on demand, CNN enhanced and DIRECTV interactive sports.
ABC gains the equivalent award for new delivery platforms for its streaming player on ABC.com. The Flash-based broadband web site provided access to full-length episodes of shows including Lost and Desperate Housewives. Other finalists were the Vongo video download service from Starz, the Major League Baseball mosaic service and Danny Bowles and the Jade Treasure.
“TiVo was the very first offering in the DVR space and it is great that they are still leading the way,” said Brian Seth Hurst, governor of the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group. “The TiVo service is certainly impressive in both its offering and user experience and meets the standard of excellence. It’s easy to see why the voters deemed it worthy of the Emmy.”
The winners were announced during the AFI Digital Content Lab at the American Film Institute in Hollywood, at which they were both demonstrated. The awards will be presented at the Creative Arts Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on 19 August.