Freesat

By Full Fat Things on 24 August 2021

Freesat: delivering the very best in TV and on-demand content to over two million UK homes via set-top TV boxes.

A match made in heaven

Freesat, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, sold their TV boxes via high-street shops. But they knew they could reach more people, if only they could sell to customers directly. Oh, and did they mention that they needed a platform to allow those customers to manage their TV watchlists and recordings, too?

A business transformation of this scale was going to be a tough challenge, so they made sure to partner with a team that would work seamlessly alongside them and understand their needs. A team that could deliver an all-singing, all-dancing platform to ensure they met their goals. That’s us!

The twist in the tale

What neither of us knew was that a global pandemic was about to hit. Numerous lockdowns shut highstreet shops for months. This made direct sales not just an additional stream of revenue for Freesat, but the main stream of revenue for set-top boxes.

Find out how we created a fully integrated system that not only coped with the sudden increase in demand, but streamlined operations so that it did so with ease.

Happy customers, happy clients…happy developers.

Visit freesat.co.uk →

Why Drupal was chosen:

Drupal was the perfect tool for the job. It is powerful, yet flexible enough to craft the perfect customer experience. This project was not just a ‘bolt on’ to Freesat’s existing infrastructure. This was a whole new platform that integrated with all of the existing elements in one, seamless process.

We chose Drupal Commerce on top of Drupal as it encompasses content, e-commerce and business integration in a way that nothing else does. The system we built works for customers. But it also provides a one-stop shop for Freesat’s customer service, marketing and e-commerce teams.

Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome):

Before: customers go to the shops for their Freesat box. They view their TV guide and set recordings from their TV. Great!

But Freesat wanted to give them more.

Now: customers can order their box from the comfort of their own home – and schedule recordings from anywhere via the website.

Freesat's goals

The project aim was to increase revenue and improve customer experience, with minimal friction. Transforming at lightning speed from a wholesaler to a retailer was ambitious. Freesat’s key goals focused on web traffic, UX and sales.

The challenge

To support this, Freesat needed a whole new website capable of selling a product, offering refunds and delivering on-brand marketing, with SEO capabilities and customer service rolled in. And a secure members’ zone to host TV guides, watchlists and recordings. No big deal!

Delivering the goods (e-commerce)

Full Fat Things, Freesat, e-commerce flow

We worked closely with Freesat product managers and marketers, gathering information about their requirements. It became clear that whatever we built, it had better integrate with their existing systems and processes. We listened, and we delivered.

Now, customers complete their order via an easy-to-use Drupal Commerce checkout process. The order is sent from Drupal to SAP Business ByDesign. The warehouse ships the order, and Drupal forwards the dispatch notification and tracking order to the customer. Neat, right?

The real beauty is that every Freesat customer system uses Drupal; one platform for all their needs. And that goes for the customer service team at Freesat, too - no more searching through different systems to find the information they need.

Spreading the word (marketing)

Marketing is often managed outside of e-commerce platforms — a completely separate world. But not with Drupal. We used Drupal 8’s Panels, a powerful page builder, to give Freesat’s marketers the ability to create their own new content pages.

The customisable modules match brand guidelines and also give marketers control over their content — while ensuring everything that gets published looks nothing short of professional.

We also supercharged Freesat’s SEO efforts. We started with a Google Lighthouse site analysis to identify opportunities to improve page speed and reduce page size; vital for ranking well on search engine results pages.

The showstopper (showcase)

We custom built a showcase grid using only views and nodes in Drupal. This clever feature uses Freesat’s own curation process to highlight recommended shows to logged in customers.

There’s no need to sit in front of the TV with a remote; you can log in and record shows from your phone or laptop. Drupal uses authentication and entitlement APIs to make this possible.

Seamless integrations

Full Fat Things, Freesat, Drupal integrations

TV guide

Customers scroll through channels to find their favourite programmes using. React app powers the guide and allows customers to control their TV boxes and record shows via the website using Freesat’s APIs.

Channels feeds

Customers discover new channels as soon as they are available with the channel feed, built with the Feeds module set.

SAP

Customers and the customer service team can do everything they need to via Drupal, thanks to the SAP integration. One system, one log-in — easy.

Marketing tools

Marketers can carry out A/B testing, integrated with Google Tag Manager and their digital marketing platform.

The cherry on top (ongoing work)

We’re proud of our work, so we are always delighted to continue collaborating with our clients after the initial project is complete. We went on to help Freesat to enhance the customer experience and improve their Core Vitals to meet the updated Google ranking requirements in 2021.

We are continuing to help Freesat achieve their growth targets. And of course, we also provide Drupal support, maintenance, security updates and weekly releases, as well as tweaking the site for Drupal 9.