Sky Usage Rockets

Date: 24th March, 2010.

Since the beginning of March, Looking Local has seen a huge 93% rise in usage of its service on Sky, proving that digital interactive TV has a growing patronage, is seen as a valuable communication channel and provides a useful service to people across the country.

We believe this impressive increase to be due to a number of reasons; firstly the reinstated freephone tariff, allowing people to access Looking Local 24/7 for free is encouraging them to investigate, browse and return to the service. Free access to government services has a particular impact on people without much disposable income, with access to such popular services such as Jobcentre Plus and Transport Direct, this is often key to longer and repeat visits.

Another important development is that Looking Local is now the sole provider of local information on the DirectGov TV service. More recently DirectGov has improved access to Looking Local from their landing screen, giving the service more visibility. With a depth of current and useful content, Looking Local is a key section to the DirectGov service, so our partnership is mutually beneficial on a number of levels.

Looking Local has recently experienced a growth in partners offering services on DiTV and mobile, late last year there were approximately 90 organisations using our technology; now that figure is in excess of 120. This combined with their collective marketing efforts will impact usage positively.

One other factor is that Sky itself continues to increase it's subscriber base, now around 9.6 million homes - approximately 37% of all properties in the UK - have access to Sky TV and the interactive services it offers. This increase is expected to continue as Sky has a target to reach 10 million homes by the end of 2010 and it is banking on HD TV and 3D TV to help them reach the target.

Over the years Looking Local has received numerous comments from users saying that the free access to the wealth of local and national services available on Looking Local has meant they have saved money both in terms of not paying for phone calls and travel expenses. In particular these comments come from job seekers across the country using the Jobcentre Plus service available via Looking Local often for long periods of time without worrying about the cost.