These promos have been clearly designed to show that Sky News Active is an everyday tool for everyday individuals and families to get the news they want, when they want.

A number of different versions exist with diverse types of people.

Click here to play

Click here to play video 2

Greek digital satellite platform 'Nova' (Multichoice Hellas) has launched a brand new competition application accessible from their 'Novascope' interactive menu on channel 100.

The 'Predict the Oscars' application, sponsored by Max Factor, invites the viewer to predict who will win the categories of best movie, best leading male and best leading female by making their choice using the remote control.

Click here to play

The primary aim of this service is to allow Canal Satellite France's viewers to participate in a vote to influence who leaves the loft (Big Brother style format). However in addition some simple news pages have been added which are updated on a daily basis - plus there is what is effectively a video hyperlink through to channel 89 - which is where the Loft Story PPV service is broadcast. Viewers who subscribe to the special event are able to follow events in the loft 24 hours per day.

Click here to play

BSkyB Becomes the Latest Entrant into the Broadband Price War

July 18, 2006 - Today BSkyB will become the latest entrant into the broadband price war by launching its high speed internet service, an endeavour that will likely incur several years of losses before becoming a profitable portfolio of services.

The ITV Election 2001 interactive service was the first time ITV had commissioned across so many interactive TV platforms (DTT, digital cable - plus the web) and was the first time such an detailed promotion was done on air. It resulted in phenomenal usage rates across all the platforms, at the time of broadcast and every hour when a shorter version was repeated.

Thank you to Mark Gawlinski at ITN for this Video.

Click here to play

Recently launched on BSkyB following a deal between ITV and the Pay TV operator, this OpenTV application allowes viewers to answer the questions posed by the presenter Chris Tarrant at the same time as the studio contestants. To answer each question, the viewer enters the number corresponding to their chosen answer on their Sky remote control.

Click here to play

I should have added this application to the video vault nearly 2 years ago when this application first launched, however here it is at last. MCM is the main rival to MTV in the French market and has a well established audience.

This application allows MCM's viewers to consult what the current, previous and next videos to be played on the channel plus find our additional info on each artist.

Click here to play

Whilst Sky have made strenuous efforts to make the whole Sky environment as easy to use and as intuitve as possible, it still takes some getting used to.

See how Sky introduce their new subscribers to the functionality of the Sky Digibox.

Click here to play

Recently honoured at the AIMIA awards (http://www.aimia.com.au), 'Long Way to the Top' is Australia's first interactive television documentary.

This special programme was broadcast via ABC's digital satellite feed on Austar in December 2002 and in a similar format to some of the BBC's recent enhanced documentaries featured mutiple video feeds which provided alternative content relevant to the programme. These were accessible by pressing 'OK' on the remote and selecting the relevant colour keys.

Click here to play

Its a pity that a Paris Premiere channel doesn't exist in a similar form in the UK.

It has some pretty innovative programmes that make the most of France's culture. You should definitely check out Paris Derniere - which looks at French night life in an unique way.

Click here to play

MTV UK's new enhancement consists of three core areas; ‘Feed’, ‘Blag’ and ‘Bitch’. 'Feed' will allow viewers to access up to the minute celebrity news and gossip which will be adapted depending on the programme content. For example: If a video or programme on Kylie is being shown, the application will be updated to include Kylie’s latest news or gossip.

Click here to play

Using virtually the same template as "Watch your own Week" (See Below) Nickelodeon used the Easter school holidays to capture its audience and offer them the opportunity to vote for their favourite striker.

Votes cost 25 pence - and although a message tells the viewers that they are only able to vote once - the connection still appears to go through.

Click here to play

Broadcasting Industry News

This epic new series by David Attenborough aims to reveal why mammals, including ourselves, are the most successful animals on the planet.
Once in the interactive service, in a similar format to Pyramid Interactive, viewers are taken by David Attenborough behind the scenes for a 10 minute looped interactive session where they can direct the action and test their 'mammalian skills'!

Click here to play

Whether rebranded or syndicated for other markets, Antiques Roadshow from the BBC has been running for many years and captures the attention of a wide cross-section of the audience. This simple enhancement produced by TwoWayTV for the BBC shows how play along elements can significantly enhance viewer enjoyment and loyalty. Unlike other iTV services, this one doesn't feature a revenue generating premium rate call to "submit your high score" - but there's no reason why it couldn't.

Click here to play

Channel 4's Sky Digital offering for Celebrity Big Brother once again makes use of tried and tested application templates with little more than a basic re-skinning of the multiple-video feed application seen on Big Brother 2 & 3. A Celebrity Big Brother Pac-Man style game has made a come-back on Sky's Gamestar portal with few noticeable differences from the previous version. Channel 4 has aimed to enable participation from all viewers, regardless of how they access the channel. In addition to voting in Sky homes, viewers with Telewest's digital service are also able to participate using their remote controls. This is in addition to the existing voting possibilities available to users of the web, SMS and premium rate telephony.

Click here to play

Sky News Active has been relaunched to include 8 selectable video streams instead of the 4 that were included in the original application. (see BroadbandBananas video vault) A similar interface (also with 8 screens) is used in the customer service application on channel 998.

Once in the News Active Service, pressing (1) will take you to the 8 separate video windows which can be highlighted using the remote control's left, right, up and down keys.

Click here to play

MTV's latest interactive application runs on MTV Hits - a digital only version of MTV that only shows videos and who has its primary reach in the UK. The application is being heavily promoted on air (see Platform Marketing Section) - and uses a discreet call to action in-vision which invites the viewer to interact.

Once the service has launched, viewers can see news/gossip, enter a quiz draw (50 pence per entry) or stick simple bitmap "stickers" at 8 pre-determined locations on screen.

Click here to play