Interactive Portal for Disney
Disney Channel UK has launched an ambitious new interactive service for viewers watching on the Sky digital satellite service, designed and built by Pushbutton, the interactive television specialists.
The service is accessed via the red or text buttons, and offers a rich menu of content and games based around the channel’s most popular shows.
The new service is designed to be ‘ultra lite’ in terms of its bandwidth overhead – yet it loads fast, is highly performant, and has much more content than the old service.
The main viewer benefits are a package of enhanced TV content services – such as quick access Disney channel programme listings, Quizzes, free to play games, star profiles, news updates, and dedicated content hubs for key Disney Channel franchises such as Hannah Montana, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Witches of Waverly Place, Camp Rock and High School Musical.
A ’shout out’ service enables viewers to send messages to their friends that will appear in a ticker on the live channel. The shout out service works via a dedicated section on the Disney website.
Following on from the successful launch of the portal, Pushbutton was commissioned to enhance the service further with the addition of two ‘free to play’ video games. ‘Cows Come Home’ is a Phineas and Ferb game in which the boys have to herd cattle into pens, and ‘Stickers’ offers snapshot fun in which viewers can take pics of Disney channel stars from live shows and then customise them with fun, animated stickers.
To manage the content on the red button service, Pushbutton provided Disney with a sophisticated and custom built content management system (CMS) that has proven to be a robust and flexible tool for updating the service.
Pushbutton Managing Director, Paula Byrne, said ”That a global media giant like Disney has placed its faith in Pushbutton is a tremendous endorsement for the company – and it is a trust that we believe we have more than paid back with the quality of the service we have designed and built. Delivered on time, on budget, to a bespoke design agreed with the client – we are extremely proud of the work we have done for Disney.”
”It sailed through Sky’s exacting SSSL testing procedure, achieving a first time pass, which again given the complexity of the project is a huge compliment to the expertise and quality of the Pushbutton team,” added Byrne.
