Hollyoaks on the Pull

Hollyoaks, an soap opera inexplicably set in Chester and much loved by students, is branching out into mobile applications and content.

First up, Mersey TV are inviting would-be television actors to send in their photographs via mobile media messaging. This new “On The Pull” initiative is an update to a 2000 initiative that resulted in four members of the public landing major roles in the show.

Hopefuls can register via SMS or on the On the Pull Website – and there is already a gallery of submitted photographs to be laughed at, so get over there.

Secondly, Mersey TV and Opera Telecom are expanding the Hollyoaks story line into new media, hoping to capitalise on the tendency for the show’s 16 – 24 year old audience to have the latest mobile phones. Hollyoaks will see a MMS spin-off later this year, followed by a full mobile video version.

On the Pull is a revenue stream for Mersey TV, as sending a photo from a mobile phone costs an additional UK£0.50 (€0.75) on top of network charges. The MMS Hollyoaks spin-off will undoubtedly be premium content too – showing that production houses have grasped the financial incentives for taking content to new platforms.

The Official Hollyoaks on the Pull Website

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?

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