Encouraging the interactivity, the games will run behind the Nickelodeon, Nicktoons and Nick Jr channels and will be accessible by pressing the red button on the remote control, says a company release. A leading developer of interactive TV services, Visionik has designed eight games, which can be viewed either as an overlay to a broadcast or with a quarter screen video.

The 'play for free' games are designed so that viewers can play the game and see the show at the same time. While first game, Bug Blaster launched on Nickelodeon on 29 September, second game aimed at pre-school children, Blues Clues was launched on 1 December by the NDS arm.

The Nickelodeon games are designed, developed and integrated on NDS's Value@TVTm head-end technology base. According to the release, iTV games are one of the best ways to attract and retain viewing audiences.

Based on characters in popular TV shows, the Nick Jr games challenges the youngsters to match colors, shapes and sounds to existing images in puzzle type games. Besides, the Nickelodeon and Nicktoons channels offer arcade type games for older children. All of the games can be paused at any time to return to full screen broadcast and easily resumed at the push of a button.

"It's exciting to be working with Nickelodeon and to be introducing a new viewing concept to the games marketplace. The new concept gives viewers the opportunity to keep watching their favorite channel and play a game at the same time. For the broadcaster this solution means that viewers remain with the channel which enhances broadcaster ratings and in turn contributes to increased advertising sales." says Visionik commercial director games Peter Schroder.

According to Nickelodeon head of business development David Jenkins, "The Bugblaster game is a great piece of technology. Firstly, it's free and so gives real added value to Nickelodeon's offering. It will also encourage kids to stick with the channel through programmes and adverts so giving our commercial offering a 'stickier' proposition than that of our competitors."