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Sky+ designer boxes make a pretty picture |
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Posted on Thursday 28th October 2004 by Callum
MacFarlane
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Sky has teamed up with a load of UK fashion
designers to produce some nice limited edition boxes. Good news if your tired
of the stacks of silver boxes that are piling up under your
TV.
Matthew Williamson,
Cath Kidston, Neisha Crosland, Wale Adeyemi and Eley Kishimoto worked on the
designs.
The boxes are on sale
from Monday 8th November, and they're bound to sell out in about 6 seconds
because they cost the same as a standard box - £199 + standard
installation.
They're on sale
exclusively in Selfridges Oxford Street, Selfridges Birmingham Bull Ring and
Selfridges Manchester Trafford.
Call TechZone at Selfridges on 0207 318 3688 to
order yours.
(Details from press
release):
Highlights of the
collection include:
Dragonfly by Matthew
Williamson, "Creating a gorgeous environment at home should be as important as
wearing beautiful clothes. I love watching TV and am using my designs to change
the cosmetics of Sky+ into something feminine and stylish. My Dragonfly design
is simple and chic and softens the hardness of the Sky+ box."
Flower Print by Cath Kidston, "The combination
of colours on my classic flower print Sky+ box design will modernise any living
room" •French Knot by Neisha Crosland, "Fashion constantly recycles, and
retro designs and classic patterns are enjoying a real renaissance at the
moment. The most effective way to revive these designs is to reproduce them in
a unique and innovative format such as on the Sky+ box."
Rainbow Graffiti by Wale Adeyemi, "I wanted to
create a design for Sky+ that not only highlights my signature urban style, but
provides notable originality, taking what is at the heart of my collection from
the street and the catwalk straight into the living room."
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Sky+ 160 - £100 off offer - until 8th
November |
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Posted on Thursday 28th October 2004 by Callum
MacFarlane
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Digital Spy website is advertising a special
offer on the new Sky+160 unit.
The potential saving to be made is £100.
With the cost of the unit being reduced from £399 to £299.
Installation charges are £60 extra if you are a current subscriber and
dont take multiroom. If you do take multiroom the charge is waived. New
subscribers to Sky pay no installation
To take advantage of
this special offer, call Sky now - New Subscribers please call 08705 800 874
and existing subscribers please call 08702 405 038 and quote the code DSPY160.
This offer is only available until the 8th November 2004.
Click on this link to go to the Digital Spy
Sky+160
offer
page.
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Sky+ paid to watch the adverts? |
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Posted on Thursday 28th October 2004 by Callum
MacFarlane
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Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts
The BBC are reporting today that over seven
million homes of Sky Viewers could soon be rewarded for watching TV as loyalty
cards come to a screen near you.
Any household hooked up to Sky could soon be
using smartcards in conjunction with their set-top boxes.
Broadcasters such as Sky and ITV could offer
viewers loyalty points in return for watching a particular channel, programme
or advertisement.
Sky will activate a
spare slot on set-top boxes in January, marketing magazine New Media Age
reported.
TV pocket-money Sky
set-top boxes have two slots. One is for the viewer's decryption card, while
the other has been dormant until now.
Loyalty cards have
become a common addition to most wallets, as High Street brands rush to keep
customers with a series of incentives offered by store cards. Now similar
schemes look set to enter the highly competitive world of multi-channel TV.
Viewers who stay loyal to a particular TV
channel could be rewarded by free TV content or freebies from retail partners.
Broadcasters aiming content at children could offer smartcards which gives
membership to exclusive content and clubs. "Parents could pre-pay for some
content, as a kind of TV pocket money card," said Nigel Whalley, managing
director of media consultancy Decipher.
Viewers could even be rewarded for watching
ad breaks, with ideas such as ad bingo being touted by firms keen to make
money out of the new market, said Mr Whalley.
Credit cards that have been chipped could be
used in set-top boxes to pay for movies, gambling and gaming. "The idea of an
intelligent card in boxes offers a lot of possibilities.
It will be down to the ingenuity of the content
players," said Mr Whalley. For the BBC, revenue-generating activity will be of
little interest but the new development may prompt changes to Freeview set-top
boxes, said Mr Whalley.
Currently most Freeview boxes do not have a slot
which would allow viewers to use a smartcard.
Some 7.4 million households have Sky boxes and
Sky is hoping to increase this to 10 million by 2010.
Loyalty cards could play a role in this,
particularly in reducing the number of people who cancel their Sky
subscriptions, said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
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Sky+ Interactive recording screenshots |
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Posted on Tuesday 5th October 2004 by Callum
MacFarlane
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Screenshots of UEFA Champions League interactive
action, including recording and cancellation of recordings, kindly captured and
sent in by Hughie.
Click on any
individual picture to see full size picture in new
window.
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