LOS ANGELES and HONG KONG, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- RDF Digital USA and Artificial Life, Inc. ( http://www.artificial-life.com ) (OTC BB: ALIF) are announcing today a collaboration to produce an interactive animated TV show entitled Sleuths. Implementing Artificial Life's innovative MoPA-TV(R) system, Sleuths will be the first television show in the United States to let audiences become part of the storyline.
Artificial Life's MoPA-TV technology has been greeted with resounding success in Japan and across Europe. Now, RDF has created a format around the technology to bring it to the States for the first time.
Sleuths is a half-hour animated episodic series featuring four kids solving a mystery every week. In the show, the audiences register and customize their own avatar which will appear on the screen representing them while the show airs live on national television. Three times per episode, the avatars of the registered audience members will appear in the show for voting sessions. A question will be asked in each session and they will have to text in their vote within a limited time frame. Those who get it wrong will be eliminated from the screen; those who get the question right will be congratulated on the correct answer and stay for the next question. At the end of each episode, the top five avatars who answered all of the questions correctly will appear on screen one final time standing with the main characters. All audience members will have a shot as seeing their avatar standing next to the show's stars.
Along with the engaging and entertaining show comes a robust online community and additional revenue from premium SMS text messages that bring the audiences' avatars live on screen.
The show was created by Max Benator, Senior Vice President of Multi-Platform Entertainment for RDF USA. RDF will produce the series.
"It's both a television show and an interactive experience -- it's revolutionary and we couldn't be more excited to introduce this to the States," said Max Benator, Senior Vice President of Multi-Platform Entertainment for RDF USA.
"We are excited about the first appearance of MoPA-TV in the US -- a home to many original, creative and innovative show formats. Nowadays, television programs must compete with many other forms of entertainment such as the internet and video games, so by adding something new to the traditional TV viewing experience it helps to satisfy the thirst of audiences for something fun and new. The interactive home entertainment that MoPA-TV provides ushers in a new era of TV entertainment!" said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.
About MoPA-TV(R)
MoPA-TV(R) stands for "mobile participation television". The system enables live TV broadcasters to support real-time viewer interaction with their shows using their mobile phones. Viewers may use mobile web, short message service (SMS) or any other communication channel supported by MoPA-TV to register before or during the show to select their on-TV screen name along with their animated 3D avatar of choice. In the television studio, a real time joystick control allows a studio operator to generate a camera path flying through the 3D scene of all participating viewers' avatars. MoPA-TV is highly scalable and can animate over 100,000 participants in real time. The system consists of special purpose hardware and servers and proprietary software to control the mobile interaction. For detailed description, visuals and demo video clips, please visit http://www.mopa-tv.com .
About RDF Media USA
RDF Media USA, Inc. is the American umbrella of the RDF Media Group, one of the world's largest and fastest-growing production and distribution companies. RDF Media USA has offices in New York and Los Angeles and consists of five operating companies: RDF USA (non-scripted programming), Pangea (scripted programming), Pangea Management Group (talent management), Full Circle Entertainment (branded entertainment), and RDF Digital USA (digital content). Since its launch in 2006, RDF USA has produced over 30 series for 14 different networks, including Wife Swap (ABC), Secret Millionaire (Fox), Don't Forget the Lyrics (Fox), Find My Family (ABC), Hitched or Ditched (CW), How to Look Good Naked (Lifetime) and Jessica Simpson's Price of Beauty (VH1). http://www.rdfusa.com
About Artificial Life, Inc.
Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB: ALIF) is a public U.S. corporation headquartered in Los Angeles, with its production center in Hong Kong and additional offices in Berlin (EMEA headquarters) and Tokyo. As a leading, full-service provider of mobile broadband 3G technology, mobile participation TV, mobile gaming, content and business applications, Artificial Life provides 2D and 3D multi- and single- player rich-media applications for 3G, 3.5G and 4G network-enabled mobile phones. Recognized internationally for outstanding content quality and technology, Artificial Life transcends traditional modes of mobile communications and interactive gaming. For more information, please visit http://www.artificial-life.com and http://www.botme.com .
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding our future results of operations, financial condition and business prospects. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Although such statements are based on our own information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable, you should not place undue reliance on them. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual market trends or our actual results of operations, financial condition or business prospects may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward looking statements for a variety of reasons. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability to obtain additional funding to operate and grow our business; the unproven potential of our mobile gaming business model; changing consumer preferences and uncertainty of market acceptance of our products; timely adoption and availability of 3G mobile technology; market acceptance for use of mobile handheld devices to play the interactive games; unpredictable mobile game development schedules; our reliance on a relatively small number of brands; our ability to license brands from others; our dependence upon resellers and telecommunication carriers and operators to distribute our products; our ability to successfully develop, introduce, and sell new or enhanced products in a timely manner; and the timing of new product announcements or introductions by us or by our competitors. For additional discussion of these risks and uncertainties and other factors, please see the documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-KSB filed on February 9, 2009. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this press release.
RDF Media USA Contact:
Brooke Fisher
Tel: +1-310-309-4034
Email: Brooke.Fisher@RDFMediaUSA.com
Artificial Life IR Contact:
Annie Lau
Tel: +852-3102-2800
Email: ir@artificial-life.com
