Xenophile wins Primetime Emmy nod

Toronto's Xenophile Media continues to go from strength to strength with its interactive TV tie-ins. The firm's latest work with The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Family channel has earned it a nomination for yet another award - this time, in primetime. The alternate reality game Xenophile created to accompany ABC Family's Fallen series is nominated in the Interactive Television Programming category at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, to be held on September 16 in Los Angeles. "I think in Canada we're always chasing recognition in the US market, so it's pretty nice," says co-founder Patrick Crowe.Indeed, the field of nominees is dominated by properties developed in the US market, including NBC Digital Entertainment's online presence based on NBC's hit show Heroes, CBS Mobile's Big Brother Goes Mobile, and the interactive sports offering from El Segundo CA-based satellite television distributor DirecTV Inc.But given that Xenophile is on a year-long winning streak at such awards, the Americans have some tough competition. At April's MipTV conference in Cannes, France, Xenophile took home an International Emmy in the Interactive Program category for its work on the interactive component of Shaftesbury Films' ReGenesis TV series. The firm shared that honour with Toronto-based zinc Roe Design, which was also awarded a win for its Zimmer Twins property.Xenophile's work has also garnered a Gemini award, and wins two years in a row at both the Banff World Television Awards and the Canadian New Media Awards.The Fallen ARG was created in conjunction with a two-hour made-for-TV movie of the same name, which debuted on ABC Family in June 2006. That property has since been expanded, with three additional episodes airing in the US this weekend.While many in interactive media believe that television broadcasters have yet to understand the potential - and the perils - offered by emerging digital formats, Crowe says ABC Family and Disney were very proactive in building non-linear ‘third-screen' content into Fallen from the outset."They came looking for us, and they'd already done a bit of research...so they were looking to companies that had a reputation and some track record in that field," he says. "It wasn't an afterthought. It was an important part of the content and the marketing of their new mini-series."The differences between ReGenesis and Fallen are quite pronounced, Crowe adds. Whereas Shaftesbury and Xenophile partnered on the former to secure capital from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and other outlets, the latter was service work performed for ABC Family in conjunction with Los Angeles' Double Twenty Productions. That fact made financing the project somewhat more smoothly - and accelerated the time-to-delivery."It was only a few months after the project was conceived of before we started delivering content - it was insane, but a wonderful kind of insanity," Crowe says.Xenophile hopes to parlay the international recognition offered by its Emmys wins into more foreign business - it's working with the BBC right now on a new project, and talking with broadcasters in other countries, including Australia. Just as in the conventional television world, "it's really important to expand internationally in order to grow," Crowe notes.

Xenophile wins Primetime Emmy nod

Broadcast | August 2, 2007

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