London based The JD Project recently launched WeDigTV, an online video portal aimed at forging what they call TV2, a “whole new genre in visual entertainment.” And near-HD interactive video is nothing to sneeze at.

The JD Project started as an agency called Jaildog, which won a BIMA award for its Who Wants to Be a Millionaire site for AOL back in 2004.

Above: WeDigTV Program Guide

Since rebranding, the company has focused its efforts on becoming a new kind of entertainment company, partnering with content producers including Freemantle and Endemol to create a more engaging video experience for viewers with an understanding of how valuable that can be to advertisers.

The WeDigTV lineup includes 8 channels so far, offering users a chance to compete in games like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and The Price is Right for free ad-supported or for cash prizes by purchasing credits.

Above: Who Wants to be a Millionaire Fullscreen

Because of the engagement this drives, the company has been able to offer what it calls long-play interactive video ads, 40-second mid-roll spots with an interactive component, an example of which can be found here.

The browser based player is very smooth, another in the line of video portals distributed across BitGravity’s CDN. It is very similar in appearance to Joost.

While I’m personally not a big game show fan, the high quality, ease of use and interactivity of WeDigTV did suck me in and it shows the potential of these kinds of applications.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 11:45 pm and is filed under CDNs, RIAs, Video Portals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.