BuddyTV, the TV ratings and forum website that raised $9.05 million from Charles River Ventures, Gemstar-TV Guide International, and Madrona Venture Group has launched a new feature.  Users can make bets on reality TV shows.  It works very similarly to online sports fantasy leagues.  In this case you pick reality show contestants as your team.  The leagues can be public or private amongst friends.  Characters are available across shows such as American Idol, Survivor, America’s Next Top Model, Hell’s Kitchen, Rock of Love, Dancing With the Stars, The Amazing Race, and Make Me A Supermodel.

BuddyTV is not the first company to offer this service, but the company still believes that they have a big enough user base to pull it off in making it mainstream.  “There’s nobody that’s really dominant,” stated BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu. “Because we have such a large community we think we can come out of the gate with a pretty strong offering.”

The new service is available at: http://www.buddytv.com/ftv.

Seattle, Wash.-based, BuddyTV is a television information social network slash listings site slash game site.  BuddyTV has a large number of users constantly reading their TV show ratings, interviews, etc.  BuddyTV recently raised $6 million Series B funding from Madrona Venture Group.  The company previously raised $2.8 million from Gemstar-TV Guide around July 2007.

BuddyTV lists top shows for all you idiot box addicts.  Top shows include The Amazing Race, America’s Next Top Model, American Idol, Big Brother, Desparate Housewives, Heroes, Step It Up And Dance, Flavor Of Love, etc.  Each of these shows contain the aforementioned features.

Other companies that Madrona Venture Group invested in includes Amazon, Classmates.com, VacationSpot, Sharebuilder, Photoworks, Farecast, PayScale, and TripHub.

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: BuddyTV Raises $6 Million From Madrona Venture Group by Jason Kincaid

BuddyTV is a Seattle, Wash.-based company that has raised $2.8 million Series A in funding today. Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMST) lead the round of funding. BuddyTV is essential an informative content website that provides coverage of major TV events such as the Emmys and has staff writers that provide updates about celebrities. For example, one of the blog posts, one of the writers blogged about how Danneel Harris, star of One Tree Hill, will have a role in Harold & Kumar 2.

BuddyTV also has a list of recent interviews, top TV shows, top rated shows, and users are encouraged to create profiles. Users create a list of their favorite TV shows, favorite actors, etc. Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. publishes TV Guide in the U.S.

References:
[1] www.buddyTV.com
[2] TechCrunch: BuddyTV Takes $2.8million Series A