At Sky, we’ve known for a long time how much our customers appreciate being able to use their mobile devices to help plan their viewing on the move.
So we innovated early, introducing our first Sky+ app for mobile phones all the way back in 2006, allowing our customers to use remote record functionality to set their Sky+ set top box to record programmes while they were out and about.
Since then, the app has proved hugely popular, and over the years we have launched bespoke Sky+ apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The stats speak for themselves: the app on iOS devices has been downloaded more than 2.4 million times since launch, with its users generating one million remote record requests each month, while the Android app has been downloaded more than 900,000 times, making it the most popular Sky app currently available in the Android Market.
Yet, to a certain extent, all apps are a work in progress, and we’re constantly listening to our customers to see how we can improve the experience yet further.
As a result, over the next month we’ll be introducing some exciting new features as part of an update to the Sky+ app. These include adding Series Link for the first time on mobile, meaning that from next month Sky customers will be able to remote record entire series of programmes to their Sky+HD box via the app. In the meantime, Series Link will be available on sky.com from early next week for those who want to try it out.
A separate Sky+ app update this week will also bring the design of the Android app in line with the iPhone and iPad, and includes a bespoke app for Android tablets, delivering a consistent Sky+ experience across all the devices on which the app is available.
These enhancements add to an already strong portfolio of mobile apps: we currently offer ten mobile apps across iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows 7 devices, which have been downloaded a total of 18 million times.
And the reason why we put so much energy into launching new apps and updating existing ones lies in their versatility. For Sky, mobile provides our customers with a range of services that add value to their Sky experience.
Firstly, they give our customers the ability to watch Sky content on the move via Sky Go, available on PCS, laptops, smartphones and mobile tablets. Launched this summer, it has already attracted two million unique users, and saw more than 30 million pieces of content viewed during October. Secondly, they help them discover content they’ll love, via both the Sky+ app as well as apps such as the recently launched Sky Movies app on iPhone and iPad. Thirdly, they deepen engagement with our content, helping our customers get closer to what we offer, illustrated perfectly by the much-lauded Sky News on iPad app.
Having provided our customers with innovative apps over the past five years, we’ve had the time to reflect what exactly it is they want from us while they are on the move, which has helped us deliver a variety of intuitive services that genuinely enhance their experience of Sky.
And, judging by the rapid recent growth of Sky+ on mobile devices, it appears that the appetite from customers for new ways of finding the programmes they love is as strong as ever.