Discovery Channel is to be the first Australasian website to make use of new web technology launched by Microsoft in a bid to take on the dominant Adobe Flash system.
The station is relaunching its Never Miss TV alert service with a major media campaign using Microsoft Silverlight.
A campaign for the new site will launch across south-east Asia on July 1 and will then hit Australia and New Zealand. Discovery Asia’s digital agency @www have worked with the channel to develop the strategy and the mechanism of implementing it, which included proposing Microsoft Silverlight.
“Phase two will involve a Silverlight mobile plug in,” Nicolas Ratsey, @www’s accounts director, said.
Users will be able to access the Discovery EPG on their handsets, and also get IM alerts down the line, he said.
Microsoft Silverlight technology is the software giant’s entry into the production space largely dominated by Adobe’s Flash technology. The company introduced the new technology in the US ahead of an official Australian launch at an event in Melbourne this week.
Viewers can go to the Never Miss TV site and register to create a profile telling Discovery what genre of programing they prefer, for example history, crime, current affairs or wildlife.
Then, on logging in, registrants will see a personalised video playlist that is build on their pre-defined preferences. They can then choose to watch any of the video excerpts using the Microsoft Silverlight player.
The video is streamed from a Windows Media Server which means the picture is optimised according to the user’s bandwidth connection.
Viewers can watch full screen or jump forward in the stream to watch a different section of footage. ººAnd users can click on the Never Miss TV button to add a show from the list to their program reminder list.
Reminders are then sent out, just before that program is aired via email or SMS.
