This week, cable giant Comcast announced that it would be working with global television company Endemol to help transform user-generated content solicited by the cable provider into an official television show, launched through a new contest called Ten Day Take.
Ten Day Take will require users to submit ideas for programs to Comcast, with a winning idea being selected to give that person a chance to work with Endemol to produce a pilot. The catch, as the name of the contest implies, is that the winning idea will only have 10 days to produce a pilot, working on a budget of $50,000.
You can probably see where this is heading...The process of creating that pilot will be programming as well, as it will be a reality-style show which follows the production of that pilot.
Think about the wealth of content this creates...a call for user-generated content that builds into a documentary on the making of a show by the winner of the contest. Sounds like a reality version of Nobody's Watching, doesn't it?
The reality show will be made available through Comcast's on-demand service as well as Comcast Ziddio.
The call for user-generated ideas for the contest is also coming through Comcast Ziddio.
Last month, I wrote about the beta launch of Ziddio, which is a user-generated Internet video platform for the cable provider.
At the time, I wrote:
The product is called Ziddio, and it currently allows users to upload videos related to the content of official participants, which are now the Style Network on Comcast and pay-television channel Cinemax. This allows use of some copyrighted material specifically in response to videos related to shows on these two networks.Not surprisingly, initial prompts include requests for videos related to Star Wars, which Cinemax is currently re-airing. Since there is a wealth of user-generated content and what seems inexhaustable interest in creating user-generated content for the Star Wars films, this seems to be a safe place to start. There's no doubt that certain programs inspire the creation of user-generated content more than others.
The plan is to bridge this user-generated content cross-platform into video-on-demand for Comcast users as well, picking the best content for VOD. According to initial press releases, the winner will get a zero-gravity flight at the Kennedy Space Center.
I saw you wrote an article about the ten day take Ziddio contest a while back, and was hoping you might
do a follow up.
I was a contestant.
I just wanted to let you know that nothing ever happended with this
contest. I was a contestant with a show - but apparently they told all top 5 finalists that they did not win - but they never actually chose a winning show. They were supposed to go public with the outcome on
March 12, 2007 - but still have made no formal comment.
If you want to go to the contest, click here:
http://ziddio.com/contest.zd?dispatch=landing&contest=5
Ultimately there were only a few viable shows - - but still there were enough to pick a
winner.
If you would, put in a call to Jon Vlassopulos at
Endemol 310 860 9914 ( jon.vlassopulos@endemolusa.tv
)and see what's going on. They won't return the contestants calls or emails. You might want to check with Comcast, too - as none of the Ziddio contests seem to have been paid on, and embarrassment for
Comcast.
I would really appreciate it if you would just put in a call or two, just so that they know people are
paying attention.
THANK YOU for helping support the independent producer
Anonymous contestant, Ten Day Take
I am not sure what this guy is talking about. The first show is airing now on Comcast, a woman and her daughter won. This was an inspiring idea I thought, unfortunately I didn't have time to enter the first Ten Day Take competition but luckily Endemol and Comcast have launched a second series so I am planning to submit. If any one else wants to submit an idea they can go to tendaytake.com!
Fred, it was because of the lag time between your comment and his. There was an extended period of time in which Ziddio never released news of the winner, apparently leading some of the contestants to wonder if there was every going to be a winner announced at all...
Thanks for letting us know about the second round of Ten Day Take, though; I didn't know!