50% Of Sky Digital Subscribers Go Interactive
Sky is claiming that over 50% of its digital subscribers have used its interactive services over the last year.
According to the satellite operator more than 7 million people have pressed the red button on their digital handset and have used interactive services since January 2001. Sky also claims that 86% of Sky Sports subscribers have used Sky Sports Active over the last twelve months and say that over 2 million people have interacted with Sky News.
Wimbledon and Big Brother 2 were the interactive success stories of the year according to Sky. Over 1 million viewers used Wimbledon interactive on its first day (see Game Set And Match To BBC’s Interactive Wimbledon) and 20% of all UK multi-channel homes went interactive with Big Brother 2 on E4 last summer.
Sky also claims that 750,000 digital viewers made use of the BBC’s Walking With Beasts interactive services within the first five days of its broadcast and says that 28,500 donations were made to BBC Children In Need via Sky digital.
Sky Interactive’s managing director, Jon Florsheim, said: “This year has seen a dramatic increase in the number of big TV brands and channels such as the BBC and Channel 4 utilising the ‘red button’ functionality on the Sky digital platform. It is this coupled with the usability of Sky’s interactive services that is pushing interactive TV into the mainstream.”
Sky’s research counters comments made by Lucy Shepherd of the CIA who said recently that the take up of interactive TV in the UK was being hindered by the poor performance and unreliable nature of interactive services (see MRG One Day Conference: The Future Of Interactive TV). A survey by the ITC also found that consumers find interactive TV complicated voting it fourth most difficult to use of 19 products behind flying an aeroplane, using a sewing machine and riding a motorbike (see Interactive TV Seen As Hard To Use).
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