Microsoft Planning More Interactive TV Shows On Xbox Live

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Xbox 360 users are constantly inundated with advertisements for various IPTV content that Microsoft is pushing on their Xbox Live platform. One of them, a IPTV-video game hybrid of the real life TV program “1 vs. 100″, has become increasingly popular on the Xbox Live platform, and Microsoft wants to create more content like that.

Although the American version of Dutch gameshow “1 vs. 100″ didn’t last long on television, it lives on via Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform. It’s become something of a IPTV-gaming hybrid that’s rather hard to explain in abstract terms.

The show’s host and contests are portrayed by Xbox Live Avatars. The host is “played” by comedian Chris Cashman, and “The One” and “The Mob” (contests on the show) are all real Xbox players, selected to be on the program. The game is played live at a weekly time and date. While most of the prizes given away are things like points in the Microsoft online store and free Xbox Live arcade games, some tangible prizes, like Zune MP3 players have been given away. The UK version of the interactive game show even gave away two new Fiat cars.

The “show” is in its second season on Xbox Live, and it’s been doing well, both with Xbox Live users and advertisers, with Honda and Sprint purportedly each paying $1 million dollars in the first season to become major advertisers for the program. Microsoft is attempting to sell conventional 30-second ads that would play during the commercial breaks.

Microsoft is pleased with the reception of 1 vs. 100 on their platform, and sources within Redmond are informing website Fudzilla that the tech giant is now actively developing another “interactive” game show/IPTV/video game that will be in the same vein as the Xbox Live version of 1 vs. 100.