Dish Goes To Phase 2 With Election Coverage
Interactive ‘Decision 2008’ Segment Matches Subs, Candidates
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 1/28/2008 10:59:00 PM MT
Dish Network Monday launched the second phase of its Dish Decision 2008 interactive television application, helping subscribers find candidates who hold similar views on key issues.
The first phase, You Decide 2008, launched earlier this month and asked Dish Network subscribers a series of questions that help match subscriber opinions with candidate positions. The second phase of the Dish Decision 2008 election portal helps subscribers narrow the 2008 presidential field by providing unbiased candidate stances on key national issues.
The interactive application was jointly developed by Dish
Network and OpenTV.
Dish Decision 2008 lets Dish Network customers access specific information about the 2008 presidential candidates. Subscribers can hit the Dish Interactive button on their remote controls and be taken to DishHOME, or Channel 100. By selecting “News,” a prompt screen appears where they will see an option for Dish Decision 2008.
After selecting that option, the names of the Democratic, Independent and Republican presidential field appear. By selecting a candidate, Dish Network subscribers are taken to an information screen that outlines positions on key issues including the environment, the war on terrorism, taxes, immigration and more.
Dish Decision 2008 also offers a forum for subscribers to voice their opinions through Dish Polls. Subscribers can vote on daily, weekly and monthly questions using their remote control, Internet service or SMS text service provided by Cellpoint Mobile. The combined results are tabulated and fed back to the various platforms through OpenTV Participate, which allows for real-time participation management across any platform.
Dish Network has more than 13 million customers with set top-box interactive capability. Dish’s iTV applications include real-time voting mechanisms, interactive advertisement capabilities and video gaming.
