Sky Plus relaunch to personalise TV

Venturethree is working on the branding and positioning of Sky Plus, as BSkyB moves to relaunch the product to a mass market this October.

The group has helped to shape a ‘mass premium’ strategy to extend the brand’s appeal beyond the existing 6.7m ‘Sky Digital homes’, as well as creating a moving image, on-screen identity. Venturethree’s work is also likely to be applied to a new website, packaging and a raft of customer communication.

Details of the group’s brief are still under wraps, but a BSkyB spokesman says, ‘The brief is to redesign the Sky Plus brand as part of a broad push to up-weight the marketing. The identity work will be used across different elements of an integrated campaign we are planning this autumn.’

Venturethree was appointed without a pitch in October 2002. No one from the group would comment on the project.

Sky Plus is a combined set top box and personal video recorder that enables viewers to customise how they watch multi-channel TV.

Initially launched in September 2001, it has tended to be seen as another piece of technology rather than a consumer service. But now the aim is to market it as a gateway to ‘Me TV’, not ‘More TV’.

The spokesman adds, ‘We see it as something that makes TV more appealing for viewers. They can get more out of the variety of channels available on Sky Digital, creating their own TV schedule around their viewing habits.’

Sky Plus is a ‘time-shifting device’ that gives viewers the option to record one digital satellite programme while watching another, ‘pause’ live TV and create regular recording slots, so that all the episodes of a particular series will be recorded. Sky Plus records on to hard disk, instead of videotape, and new features can be downloaded via satellite.