The Torin Douglas Interview: Emma Scott, Freesat
This month, Torin Douglas speaks with Emma Scott, managing director of Freesat, about consumer data, competing with the likes of Sky and Virgin and the changing role of TV platforms in building customer relationships…
Marketing “free television” doesn’t sound the hardest of sales jobs, which may be why Emma Scott seems to enjoy it so much. She’s the managing director of Freesat, the satellite TV service jointly owned by ITV and the BBC, which now offers viewers more than 200 TV, radio and interactive channels with no subscription.
“Launching something like Freesat is great because you’re talking about television,” she says, in the latest of my interviews with marketing leaders about their use of media in the digital world. “It’s great fun, it’s entertainment – Bake-Off, Strictly, Britain’s Got Talent – and we’re giving it away for free via a set-top box or a mobile app!”
Scott previously worked for Greg Dyke at the BBC where she played a key role in the launch of Freeview – which helped ensure the success of the digital switch-over after its commercial predecessor, ITV Digital, crashed in flames.
The TV channels may be free but of course Freesat’s set-top boxes aren’t – and it faces fierce competition from Sky, Virgin and others selling extra choice in digital TV.
“It’s great to have competitors like that,” says Scott. “It’s probably one of the most competitive markets in the UK at the moment, and we’re selling 40,000 boxes a month and we’re also built into many TVs, with our new Freetime service which gives viewers a backwards TV guide and on-demand services like the BBC iPlayer.”
“It’s early days yet, but as TV platforms we’re all trying to work out what our role is, as the last bastion between the broadcasters and the viewers themselves.”
But what is the role of a TV platform, as distinct from the broadcaster and the programme producer, in building a relationship with the customer? Some would ask why they need to bother, once they’ve sold the hardware, but Scott says interactivity gives them a unique opportunity to build an ongoing relationship with the viewer, by providing a TV programme guide and making recommendations.
“It’s early days yet, but as TV platforms we’re all trying to work out what our role is, as the last bastion between the broadcasters and the viewers themselves,” she says. “Our mobile app is playing a big part in that. We had 130,000 downloads in the first 14 days and half of them said they downloaded it because they wanted a really useful TV listing service, and recommendations.”
Freesat also takes full advantage of the viewing information it holds. “We have data coming out of our ears here” Scott says.
“We know how people are using their set-top boxes, where they’re going, what they’re recording, we know what time of day they’re choosing to record – 8.02 and 9.02 in the evening are the great points in the day when people are recording. And it’s interesting that when we make a recommendation to viewers, 8 out of 10 of those recommendations are recorded.”
Scott doesn’t see a significant difference in marketing a media brand from, say, a financial or FMCG product and, like others in this Newsline series, she says digital is playing an increasingly important role.
“TV is still the best medium for showing TV – such as programmes or clips or demonstrating the actual use of the set-top box and the user interface – but print works very well for us in getting the message across about the channels needing no subscription. And increasingly we’re using digital – including a weekly email to our customers, Twitter and our own branded content.”
You can hear more of her views – including why she thinks the use of tablets for watching TV will always be limited – in the ten-minute interview above.
The Torin Douglas Interview is sponsored by Sky IQ – to find out how Sky IQ insight can help improve your TV advertising effectiveness and maximise your return on investment, click here.
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