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The show must go on…

It used to be so simple. You’d sit down with a cup of tea and watch telly. Not any more. Now, with shows like Sofia's Diary, internet morphs into TV, TV into magazines, texts and beyond…

We no longer just watch programmes on television. We Google them, we stream them, we interact with them, we experience them. These days more than half of all British adults with internet access watch programmes online, according to a survey carried out by the video-searching service Blinkx.

Sofia’s Diary

Now, thanks to Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), things have moved full circle. The online show Sofia’s Diary (pictured above) has made broadcasting history by being the first UK-produced programme to go from internet to television.

The daily web drama of two- to three-minute episodes initially made its name on the social-networking site Bebo, but was recently bought up by FIVER (previously Five Life). The series is proving a phenomenal success both online and on TV among its core audience of teens and twentysomethings – the generation that looks beyond mainstream media to shape its worldview.

A success from the outset – its online debut in March attracted over a million viewers in the first 48 hours – Sofia’s Diary is now pulling in a hefty number of regular viewers on FIVER and Bebo have ordered in another 65 episodes. But it doesn’t stop at TV and the internet – the show also features in the teen magazine, Mizz, and fans of Sofia can receive mobile text alerts with the latest news.

Afterworld

Sofia’s Diary follows another multimedia property, Afterworld, which charts the story of Russell Shoemaker, who wakes up in New York City to find that all technology has become obsolete and 99 per cent of the world’s population is missing. SPTI has licensed Afterworld to Channel4 and the show launched online and on the TV channel in April.

To promote the show’s launch, Channel4 created a British homage to Afterworld, based around Maia, one of a few to survive the same apocalyptic disappearance in London of the population and technology. Maia compiles a diary of the journey to find her parents, composed of blogs, video diaries and text messages.

It all shows that while TV remains very popular, young viewers are more and more engaged by programmes like Afterworld and Sofia’s Diary that move across platforms – from the internet to TV to mobile phones.

Story by Erica Goodey

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More on multiplatforms

You can still catch up with Kate Modern, the original interactive online drama, on Bebo. For Sofia's Diary and Afterworld, read on…