BBC's Celebdaq wins Bafta award

Celebdaq lets viewers trade celebrities

The BBC's celebrity stock exchange, Celebdaq, has been chosen as the best entertainment site on the internet at the Interactive Bafta awards.

It beat the Boobahs and Virtual Townsville to take the prize at the awards which applaud top multimedia.

The best factual website prize went to the Tate Online, which features links and work from the galleries nationwide.

BBC radio's The Darkhouse, which let listeners choose the plot, won the award for technical innovation.

"Winning these prestigious awards is a huge achievement for staff working in new media across the BBC," said Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of New Media and Technology.

"I'm delighted the BBC's pioneering approach to new media and its track record in innovation has been recognised in this way."

Interactive competition

Celebdaq began life as a website early last year, before becoming a TV show on BBC Three.

BAFTA WINNERS Online factual: Tate Online Offline factual: DNA Interactive DVD Online entertainment: Celebdaq Interactive arts installation: The House of Osama Bin Laden Interactive arts: Alleph.net Online learning: Bodysong Offline learning: Knowledge Box Interactive TV: V:MX DVD: Lion King - Special Edition DVD Film/TV website: Starfinder Technical innovation: The Darkhouse Design: Greenwich Millennium Village

The show is currently off the air but will return to the digital channel on 8 March as a half-hour show on Monday and Thursday.

In the other categories, music channel, V:MX, fought off stiff competition from the gaming channel Avago and the BBC's Murder Game to collect the best interactive TV production prize.

CiTV's Starfinder took the top TV or film website prize at the ceremony. Using Flash, Starfinder is an interactive site which guides young people through what life is like as an astronaut.

Many of the nominees made extensive use of interactive elements, virtual tours, story plots, and broadband technologies in their design.

The Bafta Interactive Entertainment Awards started in 1997, and recognise the best contributions to the arts, entertainment, learning and innovation by the net, and a other multimedia technologies.

Last year, the British Academy of Film and Television split the awards into separate games and interactive ceremonies, to recognise the range of innovation outside the gaming industry.