While contestants vie for fame and recording glory on American Idol, the people responsible for making the show happen will be looking for their own payoffs—the result of a complex series of deals that started late last year. The players include Fox Broadcasting, judge Simon Cowell, and show producers FremantleMedia and CKX—all of whom are counting on mobile and online premium services to boost incomes. (More details on those to come.)
Show site idolonfox.com debuted earlier this month; americanidol.com, which had a murky provenance when we last checked, now redirects to the Fox site. Fans can build a “MyIdol” profile—hard not to think of sibling MySpace.com, play games and post on message boards. Upcoming features include blogs, the ability to add photos. A profile isn’t required for photo and video ranking.