| Service: |
Interactive application to allow charities to generate donation income via Community Channel |
| Launch: |
August 2004 |
| Production Company: |
Sky Interactive |
| Channel: |
Community Channel |
| Brief: |
Create an interactive application to allow viewers to donate money to charities via the set-top box on their television |
| Solution: |
Viewers are prompted to press red at certain times to donate to featured charities. |
Community Channel is the UK's only national digital television channel dedicated to inspiring people to do more with their lives. An initiative of the Media Trust and funded by the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit of the Home Office, the channel runs a mix of programmes in conjunction with charities, films made by or for young people or community groups and a range of topical documentaries.
The brief was to build a practical and user-friendly application to allow Community Channel viewers to donate money to a number of different charities via the set-top box on their television.
Sky viewers who press their red button can gain access to the service on a 24/7 basis. Viewers are prompted to press red at certain times to donate to featured charities by showing a red button on-screen, saying “Donate”.
There are at least eight charities featured on the service at any one time and viewers can use either a credit card or bank account to donate, with a choice of a one-off donation or the ability to authorise monthly giving.
The service also provides the option to opt-in for Gift Aid, which means that for every pound donated, the government adds 28p to it for the charity.
Community Channel can boast a very practical and successful service that gives viewers the opportunity to donate money to charities with ease. The application also allows Community Channel to process red button-generated fact sheet requests and viewer feedback.
With assistance from Sky’s Interactive operations department, Community Channel launched a tsunami earthquake appeal for the DEC on Dec 29th 2004, which has managed to raise in excess of 1.25 million pounds so far. Other TV channels that also used the red button to link their viewers to this part of the channel’s service included Sky News and other Sky Channels, Channel 4, Discovery and BBC1.
“I’d recommend using Sky Interactive, particularly if iTV is a new venture for your brand. For budget, deadline, expertise and attitude they provide an all-round package that’s hard to match, and they help make it possible for just one person to run a 24/7 multi-functioning service - for a small channel with a small budget, that’s important!”
Sinéad Hughes, Head of Interactive Television, Community Channel