EIF: Endemol eyeing videogame business models

Big Brother and Deal or No Deal production house Endemol sees great potential in emerging videogame business models including Xbox Live and digital downloads.

But the producer has no plans to expand into full videogame production or development in the near future, instead opting to partner with publishers on future projects.

"As we move into the digital distribution of content and the growth of services like Xbox Live and the digital distribution of games, we see that as quite an interesting outlet for our video-based content alongside games on the same platform," said Peter Cowley, managing director of digital media for Endemol UK.

"Xbox Live could be a great revenue earning distribution platform at some time in the future.

"The subscription model we see in massively multiplayer gaming is very interesting and potentially appealing, but it seems very hard to achieve," admitted Cowley.

The company has an investment fund of GBP 15 million for digital expansion, initially being used to fund participation TV, gambling and IPTV projects. But with Endemol recently partnering with Electronic Arts on the development of Virtual Me, an online social networking experience, does the production company have further plans in the gaming market?

"I think that's a long way off if we were going to get there," said Cowley.

"We've found a niche in the gambling and skill games market that we felt with our gameshow experience we could extend into. But it's quite a big stretch for us to be a developer or publisher in the games industry.

"The games industry seem to be much harder from where I sit in the television world. We're also built differently as we tend to create content on a local basis as opposed to an international level like the games industry," added Cowley.