Sky Go, which launched in July of this year, brings Sky linear and VOD content to subscribers on iOS devices, PCs and Macs. I caught up with Holly Knill, Head of Sky Anywhere at Sky to ask her how they built the service and what plans they have for future development.

Kanji: Hi Holly, so let's start at the beginning. How long have you been with Sky?

Knill: I started work here back in January.

Kanji: And how developed was the Sky Go product when you joined?

Knill: It was quite a different beast at that point. I was originally working on something else entirely but then I was asked to come over to the team, look at the product, the strategic intent and get things moving. So we did that quite rapidly and we kicked off development in February.

We had pretty aggressive timelines and a lot of challenges along the way as we were developing for multiple platforms

Kanji: How did the development process go?

Knill: We had pretty aggressive timelines and a lot of challenges along the way as we were developing for multiple platforms. We launched the player product on the 6^th of July and followed up with the mobile product on the 19^th. This was followed by our TV ad campaign which you may have seen?

Kanji: Yeah, this was the one where the guy takes a TV off the wall, folds it up, puts it in his pocket and takes it with him into a taxi?

Knill: That's the one.

Kanji: Good commercial!

Knill: Thanks!

Kanji: Let's talk a little more about the development process. You mentioned that you were working to some pretty aggressive timelines. What were those timelines? How long did it take from the point at which let's say, you'd signed off the IA and wireframing to completion?

We have some good insights and guidelines as to how our customers like to navigate to content

Knill: We develop in an Agile methodology and so we had wireframes and a development plan that were subject to change - we made revisions and tweaked things as we were going along. There's also a difference between starting something from scratch and then starting something where you've got several products in the market already. Sky has 10.3 million customers, 8 million of whom are on Sky +. So when you've got 8 million people happily using something like our EPG we have some good insights and guidelines as to how our customers like to navigate to content. We were asking ourselves how can we make that experience better and improve the whole product base whilst at the same time using the native capabilities of different platforms like the iPad and Xbox.

With that ethos in mind we knew there was going to be some chop and change in the build process. We also forged a new team combining the old Mobile, TV and Sky player staff some of whom were in different physical locations so we got everyone into the same building, onto the same floor and that improved things too. Amalgamating teams whilst working to deadlines was, as you can imagine, a challenge but it has worked out really well.

Kanji: And how many people, in total, were involved in the delivery stages?

Knill: Not enough! We knew we needed more people and finding people isn't always the easiest thing to do and we suffered for it. If we were going to do the project again we'd probably prioritise getting more staff in up front.

Kanji: Was all of the work done in-house or did you use any external agencies for any part of the design / development?

Knill: Predominantly in-house using our own internal resources and talent. For development of the Player we did use - and have used for some time - IOKO who are now part of KIT digital and who do a really great job for us.

Kanji: There are differences between Sky Go on the iPad versus Sky Go on, say, a laptop or Xbox. On iPad you have a smaller number of channels which are all linear and there's no back catalogue of video-on-demand content. That was obviously a conscious decision by Sky?

Knill: At launch Sky Go is fundamentally about live sport. By developing the DRM we were able to add movies into the mix which makes it even better. So yes, at the moment it's a linear proposition on iPad. For the computer and Xbox, viewers are generally sitting down in front of a larger screen and so we've added catch up and VOD content.

If you look at what drives VOD viewing, I believe there's a stat somewhere that shows most catch-up viewing is done in the week after a linear broadcast and 'Jackass' (on Sky Movies) is a great example of that. When 'Jackass 3' premiered a few weeks ago we had 100,000 views in the following week of which 80% was on the Xbox.

Kanji: Sky 1 is missing on the iPad I think and even on a computer you can't watch it live although you can watch catch-up?

Knill: There are different legal rights governing when and where we can make content available and so internally, we have to make decisions relating to shows all the time and how best we market them. So, for us, last summer was all about the 'Big Summer of Sport' - England vs. Sri Lanka and then India in the test series, the Twenty 20 tournaments, leading into the new Premiership season and then the Rugby World Cup.

Kanji: And it's a management of expectations thing isn't it this in that as long as customers know what they should be expecting from a product on a given platform then they won't be left disappointed by a perceived lack of content?

Knill: Yes, and cricket is a great example of that. We saw that a lot of people were watching the test matches on their computers at work during the day and then switching to the mobile product when they were on the move so I do think customers are aware of what they can get from the different Sky Go versions.

Kanji: And you now have about 1.6m Sky Go users according to Sky's latest financial figures?

Knill: That's right and we served 100 million pieces of content in the last quarter too.

Kanji: Moving to further product development, sometimes I download a piece of VOD content on my laptop but I'm forced to watch it on the same screen. Are there any plans to allow a transfer of that content so that I can watch the show or movie on say an iPad?

We won't just do something because we can; it's got to work with what the customer wants.

Knill: There are three parts to this: 1) customer expectations about what they'd liketo be able to do with the content, 2) the strengths and capabilities of the different devices 3) what content we can supply to different devices from a rights perspective. The short answer is that we're looking at all of this with great interest. We won't just do something because we can; it's got to work with what the customer wants.  As and when we can develop the product, which is our intention, we certainly will do.

We're striving to provide the best possible products we can across all platforms and we're constantly thinking about and reviewing how we can do that. So we look really closely at what's going on in terms of best practice in the UK and across the world and asking ourselves "what's our favourite user experience this week?" We're always looking to bring in more awesome-ness.

Kanji: That will probably be the headline of this interview - "Holly Knill - We're Always Looking for More Awesomeness!"

Knill: Look forward to seeing it!

STOP PRESS

Sky Go won the Stuff Magazine 'App of the Year' award last night. Here's a link to the story: http://www.stuff.tv/awards/2011/app-of-the-year