CANNES: French gaming and interactive TV software developer Visiware has won accolades at the second AFDESI ITV Awards ceremony that took place last evening at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes.

The French firm was awarded two prestigious trophies, 'Best game and entertainment service' for its new channel Playin'Star, launched in November 2003 on the French satellite broadcaster TPS as well as 'Best Developer' on interactive television. These awards are the follow on from the awards received last year for Playin'TV in the same category, confirms a press release.

The ITV Awards are equivalent to the Golden Globe awards for professionals in interactive television.

Visiware has demonstrated its capacity in interactivity by carrying out a number of enriched television applications for channels like Eurosport, EurosportNews, TPS Star, TF1 and interactive services like Yellow Pages on TPS, Highway Code on both Canal Satellite and TPS. It has also created a carousel technique, which enables more games with less bandwidth to be broadcasted. During the coming Olympic games in Athens, Visiware will create and broadcast an enhanced television service for Eurosport International.