lastminute.com
, the online provider of travel and leisure solutions
has formed a partnership with British Sky Broadcasting to sell its
key products through the UK`s leading interactive television service,
Sky Active.

Expected to launch this autumn, the deal will extend Sky Active`s
line-up of retail and travel services, while providing a significant
distribution platform for lastminute.com.  A wide variety of
lastminute.com products - from travel deals to theatre tickets and
retail products - will be offered to viewers with up-to-the-minute
availability and pricing.

Sky Active
is available through digital satellite television in 5.5
million homes across the UK and more than seven million Sky digital
viewers used interactive services in 2001.  The new customers
available through Sky Active will add to lastminute.com`s 2.1*
million-strong UK newsletter subscribers.

The service will benefit from the faster and simpler navigation
offered by Sky`s WML microbrowser technology, which allows viewers to
use many interactive services without interrupting television
viewing.

Jon Florsheim, managing director of Sky Interactive, said:
“BSkyB looks forward to welcoming one of Europe`s best known Internet
brands to the UK`s leading interactive television service. 
lastminute.com`s high-quality range of travel and entertainment deals
will be a valuable addition to the array of products on offer to Sky
Active users.”

lastminute.com group managing director Martha Lane Fox said:
“lastminute.com is always looking for innovative and cost-effective
ways that new and existing customers can access its great deals -
what better way than enabling them to do so via the convenience of
their television, a medium well suited to lastminute.com`s lifestyle
products.  Using Sky Active as a transaction platform further builds
on lastminute.com`s multi channel, multi platform strategy and builds
a strong partnership with BSkyB, the UK`s market leader in digital
commerce.”

Related stories on ITN:

(21/01/2002) Lastminute.com to test travel auctions on TV

——-