Webcam Content On Television In Italy And France

European broadcasters are making effective use of webcam contributions for content (screenshot from Rosso Alice).

The Italian service that's gaining most attention is BLOG-TV (by NessunoTV) which invites viewers to contribute programming and selects the best for transmission over satellite and local terrestrial broadcasting.

However, there are others. In late April, the morning show on national broadcaster Rai Uno, Uno Mattina, started taking video calls via viewer videophones. This was itself inspired by the community channel in Telecom Italia's broadband portal Rosso Alice (on the site, click on "Entra In Rossa Alice" bottom right for the video to open in a new window).

According to Participation TV, there are good reasons for Italy to be an early adopter of webcams-to-television:

"Telecom Italia has also heavily promoted its fixed-line video-phones, of which 1.9 million have so far been sold (410,000 of those with a wi-fi connection). Add those with broadband connections and webcams, and you have a huge potential audience capable of making video-calls."

Also making good use of web cams is French urban culture show CultTV, hosted by former MTV VJ Ray Cokes.