On August 2 Deutsche Telekom has launched the Interactive TV Award 2011. It’s the third time that Deutsche Telekom invites external professionals to present their ideas and concepts on the television of tomorrow. Under the motto “Television in tune with our lives”, the contributions should take the development of Entertain, the IPTV offering from Deutsche Telekom, further forward in consideration of our connected lives and work. Deutsche Telekom would like to engage in open discussion with entrants – irrespective of what prize they win and beyond the competition. For the best, there are cash prizes worth a total of € 135,000.

“The new ideas and concepts will flow into the further development of Entertain,” explains the patron of the Interactive TV Award 2011, Dr. Christian P. Illek, Director of Marketing at Telekom Deutschland. “And the competition opens the gates to collaborating with Deutsche Telekom – even beyond winning the prize. We’ve invited many of last year’s entrants to enter into discussions with us. As such, I can only wholeheartedly encourage all developers and creative minds to present their visions to us of an interactive television experience with Entertain.”

The Interactive TV Award 2011 is divided into two categories:
As a competitive developer, you can put forward an application in the “Developer” category that would also pass the practical test on the platform environment of our television service Entertain. The technical basis in this category is the Microsoft Mediaroom Presentation Framework (MPF).

There’s also the “Freestyle” category. Here, creative minds can score big time with any idea you’ve come up with that is impressive in terms of its creativity. For instance, in previous rounds we had contributions from usability designers, TV start-ups and authors. Think about the television of tomorrow – and let technology be technology!

When it comes to entering the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award 2011, ambitious individuals are just as welcome as companies or institutions – regardless of what country you come from. The Interactive TV Award offers the chance to play a really direct role in furthering the television of the future and to gain something for yourself in the process: experience, prizes, and reputation.

The first round for submitting ideas has been started on August 2. 2010 and will end in October 2010. For details regarding the 2011 competition as well as the Terms and Conditions of Entry on the Interactive TV Award website at http://www.interactive-tv-award.de.