D8 launches virtual reality Twitter voting for 'Nouvelle Star'
Henner Herwig Jürgens is the Managing Director and Cofounder of VAST MEDIA, a media research and consulting company based in Berlin that provides international television industry leaders with qualitative competitive market analysis of digital entertainment and content marketing.
Starting on April 5th, French TV viewers could experience an interactive live broadcast of the final stage live shows of singing competition "Nouvelle Star" (the French adaptation of "Pop Idol") in virtual reality. Every week until the finale in May, viewers will have the opportunity to not only experience the five live shows in 360°, but also to directly vote for their favorite contestant from within the virtual reality experience through a Twitter integration.
The live 360° broadcasts are available on the show's official website and the D8 (the channel that airs it) app. Viewers can watch the live shows in gyro mode on their mobile device or, for a truly immersive experience, with a virtual reality headset. On the show's website, viewers can order a free "Nouvelle Star"-branded Google Cardboard.
During the live 360° broadcasts, viewers can experience the show from a completely new perspective and decide for themselves from which angle to watch the performances.
However, 'Nouvelle Star Live 360' is more than a simple live stream in virtual reality. In a world first, the 360° experience comes with an integrated Twitter voting that allows viewers to vote for their favorite contestant without having to leave the experience. To vote, viewers have to fix their gaze on the contestant they want to vote for for a couple of seconds, which triggers an automated tweet including the hashtag #NSVOTE + the surname of the contestant. In the run-up to the 360° live streams, D8 already released a video on Facebook and YouTube, which allows viewers to test the 360° experience and explains the voting.
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