Sky Revamps Interactive Services To Engage Viewers
BSkyB has announced a radical facelift for its interactive services portal, Sky Active, designed to deliver more televisual and video content through a magazine-style channel with on-demand entertainment and information.
The new format will be introduced to the Sky platform on 18 November, making it available to the broadcaster’s 7.4 million customers nation-wide. Sky claims the service, together with its games channel Sky Gamestar, has a weekly reach of more than 1 million individuals, an audience it hopes to retain with greater visual appeal and improved usability.
The broadcaster hopes that the new content will encourage frequent visits and greater usage of Sky Active’s existing range of services, including games, dating, betting, what’s on guides and the National Lottery.
The principal enhancements to Sky Active include the introduction of a video-based “front page” with a schedule of short programmes designed to entertain visitors, rather than just presenting them with a menu. The channel’s content will be updated daily, and changed during the course of the day to appeal to differing audiences for daytime and evening television.
The service’s standard contents page has also been overhauled, with viewers now presented with a 16-screen video mosaic from which to choose information. Sky claims that the mosaic will provide faster access to Sky Active’s different services, as well as links to new features pages, dedicated to topics such as “Health and Lifestyle”, “Puzzles & Jackpots” and “Friends, Dating and Chat”. Each of the new sections will feature original editorial content and columnists on specialist subjects.
In addition, a re-designed A-Z listings section will provide even quicker access to individual services for users who are searching for a particular feature.
Commenting on the redesign, Ian Shepherd, managing director of Sky Interactive, said: “The bright and fresh magazine-style format of the new Sky Active provides a personalised, on-demand experience that is entertaining, informative and visually appealing. With the launch of the new channel, Sky aims to re-assert its creative leadership in interactive television and drive increased usage and frequency among our existing customer base.”
Sky has placed great importance on its interactive offerings in recent months. A presentation given the the Media Research Group conference in Madrid last month outlined the broadcaster’s progress in driving interactive advertising, claiming that a total of 520 interactive campaigns had been run on the platform by the end of October, compared with just 17 interactive commercials in 2000 (see Sky Unveils Interactive Advertising Insight).
Similarly, the broadcaster has invested heavily in its own interactive services, an investment which appears to be paying off, with financial results for Sky’s first financial quarter revealing that revenues from Sky Active and SkyBet have increased by 8% to £52 million, spurred by the popularity of its interactive betting & gaming and casino (see Sky Revenue Up 11% Despite Missing Subscriber Target).
Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com
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