Red button portal for Nat Geo channel
Release date: September 7, 2006
National Geographic Channel’s new Sky interactive service went live today. The launch coincides with the series premiere of ‘I Didn’t Know That’ (made by North One Television) on NGC tonight at 9pm.
The interactive service will be available to Sky’s National Geographic Channel viewers via the red button. In addition to schedule information and ‘don’t miss’ highlights, there will be backgrounders to the most popular series, quizzes, competitions and a designated ‘Viewers Club’ area. A ‘fast facts’ ticker will constantly provide stimulating snippets to complement the programming and enhance the viewing experience.
An extra interactive boost is provided for the new series, ‘I Didn’t Know That,’ with profiles of presenters Richard Ambrose and Jonny Phillips, a list of Fascinating Facts Chat-up Lines, comprehensive When It’s On guide, and a chance to win a 32in HD ready Plasma TV.
The interactive television development specialist, Pushbutton Ltd, has been commissioned to design and build the interactive platform, and to manage regular content updates using a dedicated Content Management System (CMS) developed by the company.
Tony Jones, NGC Head of Creative and Communications comments, “We’re incredibly proud of the Sky / NGC Interactive service. Our new series ‘I Didn’t Know That’ provides the perfect platform on which to launch the service and Pushbutton have delivered a dynamic product that is innovative and intuitive to navigate.”
Pushbutton Managing Director, Paula Byrne, says, “National Geographic Channel is the ideal client to work with. The depth and quality of its content assets is astonishing, from breathtaking photographs, to insightful text from its various websites, and broad spectrum of entertaining factual programming.”
“Just as importantly, we collaborated closely at every stage of development with the team at NGC who listened to our expertise and developed a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve in terms of commercial and creative goals,” adds Byrne.
Tony Jones continues, “All back end issues including play out, bandwidth allocation, content management, and BSkyB testing compliance were managed by Pushbutton, enabling us to concentrate on building the best possible experience for our viewers.”
The National Geographic Channel interactive television service went live on Sky at 10am, Thursday 7 September.