Complete Communications Corporation, Celador’s holding company, has been working for some time on rolling out the Who wants to be a Millionaire? game on the internet. ITV was one of the first broadcasters to take out a licence for the on-line version.
The on-line version is expected to prove lucrative and any licence will not come cheap. In the absence of a set licensing fee there is likely to be some hard bargaining between Celador and ATV. ITV is reported as having seen an 800% increase in hits on its web site since launching its version of Millionaire. In addition to the huge increase in web traffic the license also provides revenue opportunities in the form of commercials. The package includes audio-visual advertisements that must be watched by players on the net if they are to progress through the game.