Interactivity is a key proposition for us ate Asharq as a new news channel breaking into the changing media consumption pattern. Media consumption is now ubiquitous, and as such, our strategy is multi-channel engagement.

Viewers now are much more opinionated, and media consumption is also ubiquitous. As such, we embarked on a strategy of interactivity through polls. Harnessing the multi-device behavior of our viewers and users, we utilized social media, websites, and television to merge the divide between devices in a live setting.

Interactivity is the strategy, polling is the tactic we use, and QR code is the technology we use. Results of the polls are shown in lower third straps as well as Augmented reality in real-time.

Poll is first pushed through our social channels (FB, TW), where viewers can vote in advance on a particular topic on the website asharq.com/vote. And when the show is live on air, we continue to harness viewers thoughts and opinions by driving them to the polling website via QR code. The results of the poll is shown on TV through various creative graphical means.

We worked with Megaphone TV, a NY-based company who provides viewer engagement solutions. Through their polling product, we integrated their APIs into our graphics platform to show the data in real-time, through lower third straps as well as augmented reality. We created the look and feel of the graphics based on the show art direction on the website as well as on TV.

East Circle is a 5-day weekday program, while On the borders is a weekly show. Both these shows have the polling feature that enables user interaction this way.

Results are shown live in real-time.

East Circle and On the Borders are top 10 shows on the channel where engagement and polling is key.