Playboy has announced that users can now subscribe to their UK television networks via premium-rate text messages.
The company is touting the move as the first of its kind. Yakara plc will mange the text-message service.
“We are very excited to be at the forefront of new technology. Text messaging has become part of our everyday lives and consumers are used to signing up to services using this method,” says Richard Gale, director of marketing and sales for Playboy TV UK.
“However, this new service takes things a step further by allowing the customer to pay using this method too. It is very exciting to be the first broadcaster in the UK to use SMS technology in this way.”
Sky customers can subscribe by simply texting “go” to 89191. They’ll receive Playboy UK’s six-channel package that includes Playboy TV, the Adult Channel, Spice Extreme, and three Climax3 channels. The text charge is reflected on the user’s cell-phone bill as 20 premium rate text messages at pounds Sterling 1.50 each per month.
Signing up involves replying to three text messages verifying the subscriber’s telephone number, postcode, and Sky viewing card number, for security purposes.
“This is a UK first. We have made the ordering and payment of TV content as easy as voting for a reality TV show. Yakara is delighted to be working with such an innovative brand as Playboy TV, [which] has immediately seen the business benefits of using SMS Text Messaging as an automated channel for customer interaction,” Stuart Malcolm, managing director of Yakara plc, says.
