Skype product placement: Who Wants to be a Millionaire (US)

"Millionaire has teamed up with Skype for "Ask The Expert," one of our most fun and innovative lifelines!"

From an August 2008 ABC press release: "Contestants are invited to ask an expert's advice on any question beyond the $1,000 level. Experts appear via a live face-to-face Skype video call and will include newsmakers, journalists, former "Millionaire" contestants, politicians, doctors, professors and trivia champs, among others. Bill Nye appears during the show's first week, airing September 8-12, and Ogi Ogas, a former "Millionaire" contestant who won $500,000, appears during week two, airing September 15-19."

Here's a video clip that shows Skype in action.

This version of Millionaire is in syndication in the US. It hasn't made Nielsen's top-twenty-most-popular-syndicated-shows lately, but it is seen by millions of households every week.

Experts Skype in to the television studio. In this clip, Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, calls in from Pleasantville, New York.

See the little white mark in the upper left corner? He's using Skype's High Quality (640x480@30fps) video.

The expert is shown on a large screen in the studio, exposing him to the in-studio experience and letting the contestant get a feel for how much to trust the expert with a lifeline.

When called on, the expert and the contestant talk to each other and the production team shows them side-by-side to the audience. The expert's reactions to being right, wrong, or not knowing add to the drama. 

On the web side of the business, this is the Millionaire home page. See the Skype artwork (bottom middle with the rainbow)?

The Skype badge takes you to the "Ask an Expert" landing page. It encourages you to download Skype. "It's free, easy and quick to get on Skype so check out all the great information below on how you can use Skype to connect with family and friends!"

This makes the fourth US/Canada television product product placement I know of in 2008. Oprah uses Skype for people to call her show, starting in March 2008. CNN started using Skype for interviews in March. And Skype was mentioned briefly in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in July 2008 for a bit of character development involving transatlantic romance.

P.S. What television shows, movies, or characters would benefit from a little Skype?

tags: skype, video, television, tv, conferencing, whowantstobeamillionaire, millionaire, marketing, productplacement, game, shows, advertising, call, us, shortz

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