Loyalty cards coming to SKY

Oh dear, this is bad. Just like Nectar and all the other cards, I am
sure these will quickly be used to punish disloyalty rather than
reward loyalty.


Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts

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 or programme.

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.

Parents could pre-pay for some content, as a kind of TV pocket money
card,

Nigel Whalley, Decipher
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.

Intelligent card

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.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3958855.stm

In article , Ed
wrote:

Oh dear, this is bad. Just like Nectar and all the other cards, I am
sure these will quickly be used to punish disloyalty rather than
reward loyalty.

I imagine that, like BarclayCard and Nectar points, collecting points
by watching crap programmes allows you to 'save up' for rubbishy items
in a catalogue - usually things you wouldn't dream of bothering with.

In article , Mike Henry
wrote:

Sky have long since abandoned any hope of using the 2nd card
slot. Does the Sky+ even have a 2nd slot?

Yes.

How about they offer discount every year you are a customer.
YEH RIGHT like that's going to happen

Mark C

"Roger Wilmut" wrote in message
. ..
In article , Mike Henry
wrote:

Sky have long since abandoned any hope of using the 2nd card
slot. Does the Sky+ even have a 2nd slot?

Yes.