BBC wins interactive TV award

BBC News Interactive uses innovative technology

BBC News Interactive has won a prestigious award for technical innovation.

The interactive service, launched on digital satellite last November, allows users to choose news and sport bulletins at the touch of a button as well as offering extended live coverage of news events.

The Royal Television Society award came as a surprise to the team, who have previously been nominated for an Interactive Bafta and a RTS Design award.

"It is a reflection of a year of hard work from a very dedicated team," said Development Manager Russell Merryman.

Great achievement

"We delivered a system on time and on budget despite the fact that what we were doing was technically innovative," said Russell, who received the award with colleague Cliff Wootton.

Russell Merryman, Cliff Wootton and award.

BBC News Interactive is available on digital satellite but is unlikely to appear on digital terrestrial due to technological constraints.

Digital satellite users can access the service from any BBC channel by pressing the text key and selecting "news in video" from the blue menu.

On BBC News 24 it can be accessed by pressing the red button on the digital satellite handset.

Head of BBC News Interactive, Richard Deverell, said the award was a great achievement.

"Interestingly one of the things the judges singled out for praise was how this system enables us to offer a very cost effective solution to the problem of multiple video stream playout," he said.