Sky to Launch Pluck Social Media Tools Across Online Network

Social Media Technology to Give Online Audiences Innovative and Engaging Ways to Participate Across Sky Websites

British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) is working with Pluck – the industry-leading provider of social media capabilities to publishers, brands and retailers – to embed an array of innovative social media tools across its range of digital media properties. The new functionality, which will roll out across the portal this autumn, will be positioned under the new Sky Community platform.

Incorporating the likes of skynews.com, sky.com and sky.com/showbiz, the Sky Portal currently ranks as the 6th most popular commercial website network in the UK (ComScore). The incorporation of new social networking functionality – including cross-site user profiling – will help support greater audience engagement and provide improved levels of integration across the portal.

The first Sky website to launch with the new social media capabilities will be the award-winning Sky News site (www.skynews.com). Sky News has launched a variety of social media features across the site, including blogs, discussion boards and user comments, designed to give people more of a voice in shaping and contributing to the news agenda. The Sky News site will also host a user-generated ‘citizen journalism’ section in which people can share videos, photos and comments on breaking news events.

By the autumn a range of other Sky properties – including Sky.com, Sky Entertainment, Sky Motoring and others – will also deploy Pluck functionality, meaning almost all Sky websites will be able to accommodate multimedia blogs and discussions forums. Pluck profiling technology will also mean that audiences will be able to create and use a single user profile which then integrates across multiple Sky websites.

Andy Jonesco, Managing Director, Online Business Unit, BSkyB, comments: “With over 1 billion monthly page impressions and many millions of unique visitors, the Sky portal needed a social media platform that could support the high-volume needs of our growing network. We look forward to working with Pluck to deliver even more ways for visitors to become more deeply engaged with the issues, stories and videos that matter to them most.”

Powering more than 2 billion monthly social media interactions, Pluck offers comprehensive social networking technology and services that are broadly deployed on more than 200 leading digital destinations, including USAToday.com, Guardian.co.uk, Reuters.com, WashingtonPost.com and Discovery.com.

Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media – the parent company of Pluck, noted: “As a leading news and entertainment network, Sky serves a diverse range of audiences who turn to the web for breaking news, great entertainment and innovative editorial. By incorporating our Pluck social media capabilities into their digital properties, we’re helping Sky provide its growing audience with new ways to engage with like-minded and shared interest communities.”

About BSkyB

Sky is the UK’s leading entertainment and communications company and operates the most comprehensive multi-channel television service in the UK and Ireland. Around 21 million viewers in 8.9 million households enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels and interactive services on Sky Digital.

Sky’s aim is to offer customers unparalleled choice in content that best serves the demands of today’s viewers. In delivering entertainment through the TV, PC and mobile, customers have more control and flexibility over what they watch and how they watch it.

Over 3.4 million customers use Sky+, Sky’s digital video recorder, to record and store their favourite programmes to watch them when they want. In May 2006, Sky evolved the television viewing experience yet further with the launch of the high definition television service, Sky HD.

In addition to its digital television service, Sky also provides the UK’s largest 3G mobile TV service (Sky Mobile TV) and an on-demand broadband download service (Sky Player). In July 2006, Sky launched Sky Broadband and Sky Talk, providing great value broadband internet access and home telephony for Sky customers.

About Pluck Corporation

Pluck Corporation social media solutions empower leading media companies, brands, and retailers to integrate open content, community and social networking into their web properties to drive audience traffic and revenue. Pluck customers include more than 200 premium properties from market leaders like USA Today, Circuit City, Discovery, Condé Nast, Real Networks, Scotts and The Guardian. Pluck is based in Austin, Texas and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Demand Media. More information on Pluck offerings can be found at www.pluck.com.

Pluck is a registered trademark and BlogBurst and SiteLife are trademarks of Pluck Corp. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contacts

Sky
Stephen Gaynor, 0207 705 3446
Stephen.gaynor {at} bskyb(.)com
or
for Pluck
Heidi Johnson, 512-493-0909
heidi.johnson {at} virtualprdirector(.)com