Open’s Sales Top £1m A Week

Open, the interactive television service, announced yesterday that it had achieved sales exceeding £1 million per week in the pre-Christmas period. The service, which is co-owned by BSkyB, BT, HSBC and Matsushita, said that at least 8 million visits have been made and over 127,000 orders processed since it was launched on SkyDigital last year (see Interactive TV Launches In The UK) .

Chief executive of the group, James Ackerman, said: “In the run-up to Christmas, hundreds of thousands of people used Open to shop, keep in touch, for banking and for fun. It’s has been a tremendous start, but is still just the beginning.”

Broadcast tracking research from Millward Brown shows that 45% of all households with digital satellite TV have accessed Open at least once a week since its launch, for an average duration of 15 minutes. One of the top retailers on the service was Gameplay, which saw its sales on Open account for over 50% of its online revenue during December.

The first interactive television service in the UK, Open will soon receive competition from cable group Telewest, which announced yesterday that it has added 15 partners to its own interactive service, due to launch this March (see Retailers Back Telewest’s Cable Interactive Service).

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