NZ show wins Emmy Award

Actress Beth Chote played Beth Connolly in the online teen drama Reservoir Hill. Photo / Supplied

A New Zealand teen drama which screened on TVNZ's website and allowed viewers to interact with the main character via text message has won an Emmy at a ceremony in Cannes, France.

Reservoir Hill, which was created by KHF Media's David Stubbs and Thomas Robins, won the Children & Young People category of the International Digital Emmy Awards, making it the first New Zealand-made programme to achieve such an accolade.

The interactive web series follows the story of 16-year-old Beth Connolly (played by Wellington actress Beth Chote) after she moves from a small New Zealand town to a subdivision in a larger city.

Viewers were encouraged to send Beth advice as they watched, either by text or via the social messaging site Bebo. Some of that advice was then incorporated into the following episode's plot, leaving just two days to film each episode before screening.

In an interview with the Herald last year Stubbs said the programme was developed after he noticed a dearth of locally-produced series aimed at the so-called 'Twilight generation'.

Bruce L. Paisner, the president of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, said in a statement that this year's award winners had "masterfully demonstrated how to enhance the viewers' multiplatform experience".

Reservoir Hill, which received a New Zealand on Air grant for digital content in May last year, was up against programmes from Hong Kong, Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom.