SKY NEWS ALLOWS VIEWERS TO HAVE THEIR SAY

SKY News offered a unique interactive Budget coverage which allowed viewers to have their say.
As Gordon Brown delivered his Budget statement, Sky News gave viewers an unprecedented amount of instant reaction via pioneering new technology.
In a television world first, Sky digital viewers watching Sky News were able to respond immediately to Gordon Brown’s Budget speech through their set top box, simply by using the colour buttons on their handset.
After the Chancellor finished his speech, Sky News Active asked viewers ‘How has the budget left you?’. Within the first hour, nearly 8,500 viewers had voted on Sky News Active alone - illustrating just how easy it is for Sky News viewers to have their say on Sky’s innovative interactive service.
Also for the first time on British television, Sky News viewers were able to gauge popular opinion of Brown’s speech with the Sky News WORM (Witness Opinion Response Monitor). A representative UK sample of 50 members of the public were gathered together in a room in London. Using an electronic controller in either direction, each person indicated a graded approval or disapproval rating in real time as they watched the Chancellor’s speech live.
These boxes were linked to a central computer, which turned their combined approval rating into a fluctuating line graph, shown on one side of the Sky News screen.
There were no major shocks in the budget announcement, and for much of the time the WORM remained just above the neutral line - indicating there was more positive than negative in Brown’s proposals for the WORM group. (CD)