The Wentworth Rat is a chatbot, a virtual inmate locked up behind Wentworth, the fictional Australian jail, whose stories are gripping viewers in 141 countries. The Wentworth Rat’s job was to smuggle out gossip and exclusive content and dish the dirt on some of the show’s favourite characters and storylines…

…which the character seems to have done inordinately well.

Australia’s first broadcast chatbot, developed by The Works’ social messaging agency, On Message, in partnership with Foxtel’s media agency, Mindshare, has picked up the Most Outstanding Innovation Award at the Astra Industry Awards.

The Wentworth Rat was applauded by the awards that honour the best in subscription television for the most outstanding use of technological innovation in programming, production, presentation or delivery of a platform, program, channel or event.

The Rat interacted with fans via Messenger, asking them questions and revealing exclusive content including videos, GIFS and audio, as well as giving teasers about upcoming storylines.

There were more than 2.3 million message interactions with The Rat and users spent one hour and nine minutes on average chatting with the bot during the season.