DITV

On Digital Interactive TV, Looking Local is available on all Sky, Virgin and broadband connected Freeview boxes. This means that already 55% of households - in excess of 13 million homes across the UK - have access to real time, interactive government services.

Recent government research shows that 17 million adults in the UK today do not have any experience of or access to the Internet, and that a significant digital divide is growing, one which broadly maps on to lines of social deprivation. A recent study suggests that 'approximately 5.61 million people in England are both materially deprived and unengaged'. (UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) These are the people that Looking Local and its partners are specifically trying to reach.

The digital switchover has already begun and will progress across the country until all homes have access to digital TV, completing in 2012. Now that the Digital Switchover Helpscheme has designated that all boxes in phase one will have a return path, all people over 75 and some people on disability benefit will benefit from the Helpscheme and thus have access to DiTV and thus Looking Local. Switchover gives us a fantastic opportunity to deliver useful services to many people who do not and will not have Internet or PC access or the ability and/or confidence to use it, but who are happy and able with a TV and remote control. Across the board, switchover will be a period of heightened awareness and realisation of what DiTV can do.

Click here to find out more about the TV side of Looking Local's technology or here for the DiTV landscape

Mobile

In terms of mobile phone ownership current figures show that over 92% of the UK population owns a mobile phone - higher than those homes with a fixed line - and mobile ownership in the 18-24 yr old age group is as high as 95%. Mobile Internet has seen steady growth in the UK; 17.3 million people can now access the internet via a mobile (Dec 2008 figures). This represents a 25 per cent growth since May 2006, indicating an average 4,500 new users every day. (Source The Mobile Data Association)

In fact 'mobile only' households are on the increase as the latest research The Mobile Generation (May 2009) from IPSOS MORI explains:

"Landline penetration has been falling steadily from its peak ten years ago as mobile phone ownership has increased. Mobile phones are now being used as a main telephone rather than a secondary communications device. In 2009, we predict that the percentage of households that are mobile only will exceed the percentage that only have a landline telephone.

Figures from the 2008 National Readership Survey show that mobile only households account for almost 12% of the total, a proportion that has been steadily rising over the past few years. Incidences vary for different groups. There is a higher incidence of mobile only ownership in households with young people aged 15-24 (43%), students (50%) and those in social grade DE (21%)."

Looking Local is specifically designed for mobile delivery, being able to identify whether someone is using the TV or a mobile to access the service, and rendering the content accordingly. Many of Looking Local's services are particularly well suited to mobile use; local and events information, reporting of issues, travel updates and journey planning. Looking Local gives 24/7 access to many people who do not enjoy the benefits of a PC at home or, indeed, who find the mobile phone a more convenient device with which to self serve.

The mobile side of the Looking Local technology can also be deployed to offer mobile working solutions for your organisation's employees, leading to greater efficiencies and more flexible working practices.

Click here to find out more about the mobile side of Looking Local's technology.

- The Communications Market 2008

"Mobile broadband emerged in 2008 as an increasingly popular means of accessing the internet. The five mobile network operators have all begun to target their mobile broadband offers at residential consumers, and while the subscriber base is relatively low, it is growing fast. There were over 500k new connections in the five months from February 2008, with 133k connections in June 2008. Seventy-five per cent of those with access to mobile broadband use it at home, 18% do so at work and 27% while elsewhere/on the move."

Consumer Electronic Platforms

In early 2009 Looking Local was the first UK government service to make itself available - purposely designed and deployed - specifically for the Nintendo Wii. Looking Local is platform agnostic, and the Wii represents the first TV connected piece of consumer electronics that we have designed for, but we are sure there will be others in the near future.

However launching an interface for the Wii means that Looking Local is available to thousands more households across the UK. Many customers, particularly in the housing and health sectors, have been looking for a cost effective way to make services available to those who need them most and the Wii fits their requirements in many ways; economical, easy to use, popular, accessible and via Looking Local capable of delivering a range of additional local and national government services.

Looking Local Usage

Over the past year Looking Local has experienced a 200% increase in usage, partly due to banner ads on Virgin, local authority marketing, but also due to increased ownership of DITV and awareness of interactive services. Traffic in certain parts of our service has increased 350% and overall Looking Local receives nearly 2 million hits per month.

Click here to find out more about Looking Local's technology.