(29 April 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: In what could be seen as a take off on US broadcaster Fox's very successful music based reality show American Idol, rival NBC has announced that its new, exclusively online music competition StarTomorrow is conducting a search for the first Internet superstar band or singing group across the US.

Solo artists, bands, singing groups or duo's in America who are at least 18 years of age are encouraged to submit auditions to StarTomorrow producers. The top 100 submissions will be invited to audition.

Group members will secure a record deal with the Casablanca label (a division of the Universal Music Group) who will also offer career guidance.

StarTomorrow is expected to debut this July on NBC.com with a search that will ultimately narrow the field down to 100 of America's best groups and bands that have been screened for entry into the competition. Approximately twenty band auditions will be released each week for the first half of the sixteen week series.

Viewers will then evaluate them and have a week to vote on which groups and bands will move on to the next round. The finalists will then compete in the second half of the series. The format will include covers of pop, rock and country favourites and original material, but as the series goes deeper into the competition, the focus will shift more to original songs.