• by Masha Geller , April 21, 2003

We're still ages away from our cell phones ringing with special offers for cappuccinos as we walk past a Starbucks, but there may be something to this text messaging thing after all, if used correctly.

The first major wireless interactive TV tie-in ever seen in the U.S. has hit its first major milestone and is the biggest success story in U.S. text messaging history. On Tuesday evening, April 8, 2003, the hit series "American Idol," in which one contestant is voted off each week by viewers at home, received more than 2.5 million text messages, including polls, sweepstake entries, trivia and votes.

AT&T Wireless engaged Mobliss, Inc., a mobile media company, to enable users to vote via text messaging, using the same contestant codes as those used by traditional call-in voters. The application runs on Mobliss' Short Messaging Services (SMS) moTV platform and is available exclusively to AT&T Wireless subscribers.

The results are worth paying attention to. At one point, nearly one thousand text messages per second were received during the voting period after each show, the highest peak text messaging traffic the U.S. has seen to date. In addition to text voting, viewers are using text messaging services to answer sweepstakes trivia questions, participate in on-air polls and even send in their comments about the show.

Brian Levin, President of Mobliss, says that an interactive TV component allows wireless carriers, brand marketers and consumers to "utilize text messaging in an engaging, entertaining and profitable way." Indeed, it is estimated that messaging applications will generate $2 billion in revenues by 2005, compared to $531 million in 2002, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.

Could this be a sign of the U.S. catching up with Europe or is this American Idol experiment just a lucky fluke? Time will tell, but we'll keep you posted.