Lottery Democracy for Scotland
19 January 2009
Life used to begin at 40. Now, it seems, 50 is the beginning of your prime, as highlighted by BBC Scotland’s Primetime series, which used Content Guru technology to drive a Scotland-wide vote on how £3 million of Lottery money should be used.
Primetime is a BBC Scotland and Big Lottery Fund initiative championing health, wellbeing and fitness for the over 50s in Scotland. Groups from six Scottish regions were asked to submit applications for Lottery grants of between £100,000 and £500,000, with three projects from each region chosen to go forward to the television stage.
Primetime aired as a series of six programmes and viewers were invited to vote by telephone, during and shortly after each programme, with the winning project announced the following week.
Content Guru’s STORM™ platform hosted the voting, which was overseen by the Electoral Reform Society.
STORM has recently been audited by Deloitte and is one of only two fixed line telephony platforms in the UK to have been approved by the BBC’s new Interactive Technical Advice and Contracts Unit (ITACU).
STORM has the ability to prevent votes being cast outside the qualifying time period. Viewers who attempted to vote at the wrong time were advised by an automated response that their vote would not count, and that they had not been charged for the call.
Winning groups came from across Scotland and included a volunteering project and a community transport initiative. Said Sean Taylor, Managing Director of Content Guru, "This is an excellent example of the value of interactive TV. Primetime delivered real social value and showcased STORM’s integrity as a voting platform."
For further information call +[44] (0)1344 852 350 or text Guru to 66663.
