Sky’s the limit
Sky Player has been slated as the least user-friendly video on-demand (VoD) service available from UK broadcasters, according to a new survey.
Webcredible's report tested VoD services by the BBC, Sky, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and STV, only to find Sky Player scored the lowest overall.
In August, the six sites were tested and marked against 10 criteria, assessing how much prominence the VoD service was given on the channel's site, how easy was is to search for programmes plus what support was offered.
The BBC's iPlayer came out top, while Sky was placed bottom as it scored particularly poorly for explaining its subscription packages.
Here is a table from Webcredible to show its final scores.
|
The 6 websites received the following scores: Application |
Company |
VoD website |
Total |
|
BBC iPlayer |
BBC |
http://beta.bbc.co.uk/iplayer |
88 |
|
STV Player |
STV |
http://player.stv.tv |
76 |
|
Demand Five |
Channel 5 |
http://demand.five.tv |
72 |
|
4oD |
Channel 4 |
www.channel4.com/4od |
68 |
|
ITV Player |
ITV |
www.itv.com/itvplayer |
60 |
|
Sky Player |
Sky |
http://skyplayer.sky.com |
55 |
|
Average score |
69.7 |
||
The report found that the majority of the websites did a pretty good job of helping viewers search for their favourite programmes, scoring an average of 4 out of 5.
Yet, most of them lost marks for making key tasks difficult to figure out and to execute. The report also found while people are gradually discovering VoD, the websites are not doing enough to increase viewer's engagement with the platforms such as providing flexible viewing options and extra features.
The report also noted that the different sites work on different business models which can be confusing for viewers. For example, while all content on BBC iPlayer and the STV Player is free, others charge for some programmes. Interestingly Demand Five scored pretty highly despite having different options including free shows, programmes to rent and some that need to be purchased, however Sky really came a cropper in this area.
Trenton Moss, director of Webcredible told webuser: "The functionality offered by many of the VoD sites is very similar so user engagement is an area where sites can really look to differentiate themselves. This lack of engagement is particularly important for broadcaster VoD to compete with sites like YouTube and new market players such as SeeSaw."
Meanwhile, in better news for the satellite TV giant, more than 2m people have downloaded the Sky News iOS app. The company has just launched an updated version of the app, that boasts 700,000 unique users every week.
The new free app has been refined to provide better pictures for Apple's iPhone 4 Retina display and lets users share stories on Facebook and Twitter. User can also read pre-stored stories when the phone is offline.
