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uk sky - Celebrity Big Brother 2002 & Four Active |
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 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.
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 Channel 4 have also chosen the Celebrity Big Brother event to launch their new 'Four Active' portal. By pressing a red button call-to-action which appears at regular intervals - (But which disappears and becomes inactive during ad-breaks to allow iTV advertising) the viewer can enter into a menu environment which provides additional information on Celebrity Big Brother or other core Channel 4 programming such as soap opera 'Brookside'. The application also exists across sister channel E4 - although the logos and programme information are tailor made to each channel. It is fair to say that both applications, beyond programming highlights, are not really Channel 4 portals but effectively a Channel 4 branded entry point into all the services traditionally found on Sky Active. Drilling down through Four Active's menus takes you to services such as 'Talk 21' email and Sky Active's traditional retail and classified advertising services. This seems a pity - as Channel 4 already have a website which is rich in content that they could have made better use of and their own commercial partners which they could have developed for their own transactional services. |
Enhanced TV 
