ITV extends interactive services partnership with Fonix into its 10th year

ITV PLC, the UK’s leading commercial broadcaster, has entered into an agreement to extend its partnership with Fonix PLC, continuing a long-standing relationship focused on delivering mobile interactive services across ITV’s portfolio of programmes since 2017.

Under the extended agreement, Fonix will continue to power mobile carrier billing across ITV’s competition portfolio, while supporting SMS payments and interactive services across a range of flagship programmes, including I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here, Love Island, Britain's Got Talent, Good Morning Britain, This Morning and ITV Sport.

Leveraging its Campaign Manager platform, Fonix provides secure, scalable SMS engagement infrastructure alongside real-time data insights, helping ITV enhance audience participation and deliver more dynamic, engaging viewer experiences.

Peter Mossman, Director of Production and Strategic Delivery at ITV, said: “Our partnership with Fonix has played an important role in shaping our interactive services. As audience behaviours continue to shift, it’s vital that we work with partners who can combine reliability with innovation. Fonix brings both, and we’re excited to continue building on what we’ve achieved together.”

Rob Weisz, CEO of Fonix, told That's Business: “Extending our work with ITV reflects the strength of the relationship we’ve built together, as well as a shared ambition to keep improving the viewer experience. Interactivity continues to play a key role in broadcast, and we’re proud to provide the technology and insight that helps ITV engage audiences at scale.”

https://www.fonix.com

Keynote 2023: myWorld announces future innovations in the world of shopping

myWorld Benefit Programme, continues to focus on ground-breaking shopping technologies. 

During this year’s Keynote, which recently took place in Slovenia, the company gave an outlook on the innovations that will make the shopping experience even more attractive for shoppers and partners in the near future, in the e-commerce sector plus in-store.

AI-based shopping service assistants, payment via e-wallet and an “everything app” for retail, these are some of the buzzwords around which everything currently revolves in the development department of myWorld. The objective is clearly defined: State-of-the-art technologies should make it easier than ever before for customers all over the world to save money on their daily purchases. At the same time, the aim is to further increase the added value for participating partners.

“We have already taken giant steps in this direction over the past year. The popular ‘Scan & Go’ feature in the myWorld App, for example, makes customer transactions much easier for everyone involved. 

"Also, we have expanded the product range of our affiliate partners on myworld.com to 100 million products by now, so our customers can start their shopping adventure directly on our website or in the app. But that was just the beginning. We're about to implement the next wave of innovative shopping technologies,” explains myWorld Co-Owner Sharif Omar.

E-wallet – live Cashback for myWorld shoppers

What is already very popular in Asia is still in its infancy in Europe: payment by mobile phone via e-wallet. “Around 70% of our Asian customers already pay with their electronic wallets. Now we want to introduce this simple payment method step by step for our European customers as well,” explains Sharif Omar. 

For myWorld partners, this step means they receive their customers’ money in real time and incur around 90% fewer transaction fees. The big advantage for the shoppers themselves: They will also receive their Cashback in real time and can use it immediately to continue with their shopping. 

Radovan Vitosevic, CEO of myWorld International AG, is enthusiastic about this near-future development: “For our European branches, this will be a milestone that will take the shopping experience for our customers to a new level.” The first test phase is planned to start by the end of the year.

“Everything app” – the revolutionary solution for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises make up the large majority of myWorld partners. myWorld is therefore making great efforts to simplify the day-to-day business of its SME partners and help them to be more successful. 

The company is currently working with a cooperation partner to develop an “everything app” and a corresponding hardware solution. “The app will cover all necessary business functions,” explains Sharif Omar. “In the foreseeable future, our partners will be able to use it not only to process payments, for example with e-wallet, credit or debit card, but also to operate their loyalty programme or set up advertising measures – and all that with just one app.”

Chatbots & Co - the smart shopping service assistants of tomorrow

Great innovations can also be expected in the future in the area of AI-supported shopping service assistants. The potential go-live of the first chatbot is expected to take place in December, on two continents, in order to subject this technology to an extensive practical test in several countries and in different languages. 

The chatbot will be able to support myWorld customers in all aspects of the Benefit Program – from explaining individual benefits to searching for nearby partners. The improved myWorld Plug-In for desktop browsers, which uses AI support to help customers consistently find the best deals, is a step in the same direction.

“This year, we have integrated more new technologies than ever before,” states Sharif Omar. “We are thus paving the way for the myWorld Benefit Program of the future and the further expansion goals of the international group of companies.”

Interested parties can find the full myWorld Keynote on the company’s YouTube channel.

Read more at myworld.com.