Giving more shape to Sky’s strategy of providing second screen service to its TV customers is finally a reality. Sky has entered with a partnership with zeebox who has agreed to offer its technology which is slated to provide enhanced TV viewing features along with social media access through smartphones and laptops. At the same time, this Apps from zeebox is capable of controlling the Sky + box and Sky Go providing Sky customers with great benefits of using it all the way.

At present, the zeebox service can be enjoyed through the web, iPad, iPhone. Users of this apps can integrate TV programmes and their details with the social media messages through Twitter and Facebook which but naturally enhances the entire TV viewing experience. Customers can not only watch TV programmes but post their feedback and comments simultaneously through their social media accounts.

The second advantage of using this zeebox app is that customers get to control their Sky +box remotely enabling them to record programmes, rewind and even fast forward them as per their preferences.

Customers can also use this app to dig out additional information on TV programmes which relate to the actors, plot synopsis, viewers feedback and even buy products related to these shows too. In all, this zeebox app is surely going to prove just what majority of the viewers were on a look out for.

Taking things forward through this zeebox powered app, Sky can firmly establish itself in the minds of the consumers for it provides quality TV programmes along with access to them through televisions as well as mobile devices and laptops which has become a must for most Sky customers who are on the move.

Re launch of Sky’s 35mm on Sky Movies Showcase HD every Friday at 7.30 pm with Alex Zane

Sky Movies has announced the re-launch of its programme 35mm with a fresh presenter Robyn Bright and film critic Alex Zane on Sky Movies Showcase HD at 7.30 pm every Friday. The repeat telecast of the show will be at midday every Saturday on Sky1 HD.

The show 35mm is designed to put forth a new perspective to film watching with additional does of tidbits and trivia on popular films along with the stories associated with them. Viewers can expect to catch up with latest movie news, previews, A-list interviews, studio guests, social media interaction and much more with Alex Zane, a famous film critic and Robyn Bright.

Film buffs can catch up on the latest movie releases and stories and stay on par with the latest information provided by Robyn Bright and Alex Zane. Viewers are likely to stay hooked to the Sky’s 35mm show takes you across sets and movie awards ceremonies of the latest movies. With ice breaking interviews of celebrity guests and the charming personalities of Alex Zane and Robyn Bright, the 35 mm show is likely to be more than a regular movie show.

Alex Zane is an experienced presenter who has decades of experience in the film industry and is equally excited about presenting the weekly 35 mm show especially when it comes to visiting the sets, meeting star personalities and interacting with them while catching up on new movie releases and much more. At the same time, Robyn Bright is young and talented presenter who loves being the co presenter of the show is all excited about presenting it with the acclaimed Alex Zane.

Make sure you catch upon the latest news on new movie releases, previews and much more by watching the 35mm with Robyn White and Alex Zane on Sky Movies Showcase HD at 7.30 pm every Friday and it will available on Sky Anytime as well.

50 M&S Voucher with Sky+ Box
Anyone in search of an incredible deal on their TV subscription should take advantage of this Sky offer where you can receive £50 Marks & Spencer vouchers!

Two of the most successful companies know worldwide have joined forces to offer their loyal customers a fantastic money-saving deal. You can receive £50 worth of Marks & Spencer vouchers if you are a new customer joining Sky before the 22nd September.

With this you will receive a new Sky+ set top box for free, as well as free instalment. This service will give you access to a great number of new channels and programmes.

Choose the Starter Pack to begin watching 41 entertainment channels, which you can pause, rewind and record whenever you like with the simple touch of a button. You can even enjoy watching TV when you are out of the house with Sky Go, which is an independent platform that allows you to access and view your subscription channels via your laptop, iPhone or iPad! Further to this you can receive an amazing bundle deal by opting to include Sky Broadband and Sky Talk to your subscription to receive 20Mbps broadband download speeds and free evening & weekend calls.

If you are interested in a great internet service then you can select the Unlimited Surfing Pack whereby you will be supplied with 20Mbps download speeds and an unlimited monthly data usage allowance. On top of this you will receive free evening & weekend calls; in addition to this you can enjoy 93 entertainment channels.

Indeed, if you are a sports fanatic then you are sure to be thrilled with the Sports Fan Pack. Here you will receive unrestricted access to all 5 dedicated Sky Sports channels, as well as 41 separate entertainment channels. Enjoy every moment with live pause, rewind and record, and take the games with you when you are out by using Sky Go! Use Sky Broadband with 20Mbps to comment on all the sports blogs, and so much more, or keep the missus happy while you watch the match with free evening & weekend calls to all UK landlines.

If you are a film fanatic then you can opt for the Movie Lover Pack which houses an incredible 12 channels that are exclusively dedicated to showing films. In addition to this you will receive a further 41 entertainment channels, the ability to pause, rewind and record live television. And furthermore you can benefit from a great deal of 20Mbps broadband speeds, and free evening & weekend calls to UK landlines.

Did you join Sky before 31st August 2011?

If you were among the many savvy individuals to take advantage of the Sky Price Freeze in August of this year, then you may have noticed that there are a few changes to your monthly subscription.

As promised, your Sky TV, Sky Broadband and Sky Talk bills will stay the same for the 12 months following the date that you joined on or before 31st August. You may have noticed however, that there are a few changes to your subscription. These are to be expected, as on 1st September Sky initiated a number of changes to their subscription plans.

By simplifying the choices that you can make, Sky are able to provide the same great service that you are accustomed to in an easier and quicker format. Instead of 6, there are now 2 Sky TV packages, named Entertainment and Entertainment Extra. The latter option is a new development which houses more channels and programmes than ever before from a variety of genres including children’s programmes, history, real life documentaries, music and the hugely popular Sky Sports.

When the changeover of Sky services went live in September you were automatically moved to one of these subscriptions. Due to the August Price Freeze however, you will not be charged for these updates!

Even though you are receiving a new subscription, Sky has ensured that you will receive exactly the same channels that you had requested before. Moreover, you might in fact be receiving extra channels free of charge!

Your monthly bill from Sky may still retain details of your old subscription but the new Sky TV packages are available to view right now. Such a large changeover of services to the millions of households that enjoy Sky services takes some time; soon you will see the new packs on your bill or in your My Sky Account.

White Spaces
If you are living in the UK, or are a frequent newsreader, you will have been informed of the ongoing digital switchover and the expansion of improved speedy broadband services to rural “not spots”.

Now, with the change from analogue TV signals to digital, there is a certain amount of unused airwaves. These old signals, which were originally used to stream your favourite TV programmes into your home, have just been awarded to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) so that they can supply better broadband to the masses.

Ofcom, who is an independent regulator of telecommunications services, have given the UK ISPs licence to surf these empty waves which have been tagged as “white spaces”. Ofcom have reported that the UK will be the first country in the EU to use white space in this way, and that with it broadband in rural areas can potentially reach distances of twice what is currently being achieved.

In order to regulate the use of these white spaces, Ofcom will develop the hosting of an online database to ensure that there is no interference with any existing devices or services already in use in the rural locations that could benefit from this extra usage.

Regulators are seeking approval from Parliament to allow ISPs to use white spaces without needing an Ofcom licence as per the existing Communications Act 2003. It is anticipated that this should maximise the use of the abandoned TV spectrum which we now call white space.

The integration of this extra spectrum will improve existing services as ISPs roll out more broadband to rural areas, and will simultaneously facilitate better communications for communities and businesses who may have struggled in the past as they were excluded from the digital era that is recognised by many to be key to survival nowadays, particularly in business.

More and more people in the capital are using their smartphones and now people are always on the hunt for the best, strongest internet access. In fact, one of the latest apps to hit the market is the Speedtest.net Mobile Speed Test. This works like many of the Speed Checker tools supplied by Internet Service Providers (ISP) on their own websites. If you are looking for a truly unbiased estimate of the broadband speed you are achieving, then you can now download this app for free and find out directly for yourself.

To gain an accurate representation of the broadband speeds that you are achieving, users should perform speed tests at regular intervals throughout the day. This should then be compared with the approximation advertised to you by your existing ISP – most ISPs will claim an “up to” speed in their adverts. It may be interesting and helpful to know that in a recent survey, Ofcom found that the average speed achieved by households in the UK is 7Mbps.

Not only are great speeds a necessity for people using the internet but now there is a great demand for free access to broadband speeds in public areas. Multiple ISPs are competing to meet this demand by creating and installing a Wi-Fi service in the capital, yet the catch thereof tends to be that you will only gain free access if you are already subscribing to that particular ISP for your home service.

BT have recently teamed up with the beer giants Heineken to allow free internet access to patrons across 100 London pubs, with an extension of a further 100 if all goes well. You will be granted access to this benefit if you are an existing BT Broadband customer, where you can read up-to-date and exclusive content on news, sport, business and culture from the “i” newspaper, a sister title to the Independent.

It has been claimed that this will increase BT’s internet hotspots to over 3 million, turning them into the largest Wi-Fi network in the United Kingdom. Rival Wi-Fi distributors, The Cloud, however have recently announced a partnership with Caffé Nero where 450 shops will be able to reach more than 1 million customers each week. As the consumer demand for free access to the internet in public places grows because more people are using smartphones and Wi-Fi enabled portable devices like tablets, so too does the need to be the top provider.

BT Vision, Freeview, Sky or Virgin Media?

The usual analogue television is being abandoned the world over in favour of the improved digital signal. This means that almost everybody will be able to receive access to Freeview TV with enhanced quality screening.

Earlier in the year, the independent watchdog, Ofcom, conducted a survey which discovered that over 93% of households in the United Kingdom are already using a digital signal to receive TV. The digital switchover is a mandatory change that is occurring on a nationwide scale, so if you are not already among those using the digital services provided by pay-TV providers such as BT Vision, Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media, you will soon need to upgrade each individual television set in your home.

The increase in the amount of consumers using digital TV services as collated by Ofcom has shown that there has been a massive swelling to each competing provider. The battleground has therefore changed to allow these service providers to sweat it out to dominate the industry by offering something further to their traditional digital pay-TV. Ofcom similarly found that there were 22% of UK households viewing television via games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.

Ofcom found that there has been an increase of 18 minutes in the amount of time that the average Brit watches TV in since this time last year – is this due to the fact that TV has become more accessible than ever through games consoles and online streaming?

Catch-up TV services are ever-more popular and ensure that consumers will never miss a moment of their favourite programmes. And where it was once something for the elite to enjoy, unparalleled access to digital content is now the norm for most households. TV providers are therefore expanding their markets to accommodate further benefits and any additional features that might sway a consumer’s choice. The outstanding question is not therefore when consumers will get digital TV but who they will get it from?

Return of the 12 month contract!

The digital age in which we now find ourselves living is dominated by one must-have item that no self-respecting being, from entrepreneurs to adolescents, would ever be caught dead without: the smartphone.

No longer are people restrained by insufficient means of communicating with one another. In fact, they are saturated with new interactive platforms that allow us to correspond with one another, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn. The archaic use of a mobile phone for calling and texting others has been shunted in favour of communal stages, which are online-based, where information can be posted and shared. With these added features, people’s perceptions and expectations of what a phone should do have changed. So too have the telecommunications retailers’, as we have seen their contract length extend over time with the product improvements.

Until now, as Virgin Media have brought back the long-grieved 12 month contract!

A renovation of their mobile phone tariffs has been noticed, with the prized annual contract returning, as well as many added features for Virgin Media customers.
The drawback with this returning offer may be an increase in price overall, however, with the endless innovations and updates in smartphone technology nobody wants to be tied into a 24 month contract with an old model.

Virgin Media’s Director of Mobile, Jamie Heywood, is reported to have stated that “Our newly refreshed monthly mobile tariffs offer a simpler way for our customers to tailor their phone packages to suit their needs, whilst giving customers greater contract flexibility, more minutes, texts and mobile data.”

In addition to this customer will be able to choose and add from many bundled extras too, like double talk time for only £2 extra a month and £5 for 5 GB of extra data usage. Other retailers are predicted to follow suit very soon as they all remain closely competitive. In order to benefit from these ideal contracts and great savings, visit the Virgin Media website today!