A TV Key is a mechanism for any advertiser

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 or content owner to link consumers to specific interactive television destinations, including enhanced TV applications, from media delivered over broadcast

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 or broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

 networks TV Keys can be embedded in any video stream and can be used as an on-screen call to action. TV Keys can also be displayed in newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 advertisements and other printed collateral. A TV Key associates a brand

Brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

 or memorable word with a numeric code. Viewers enter the TV Key word by matching the letters to numbers on their television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 remote control

Remote control

A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...

.
A TV Key is a feature of the open, standards-based interactive TV services platform provided by Miniweb Interactive and can be used with interactive TV services over multiple television network types including satellite TV

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

  and digital terrestrial television

Digital terrestrial television

Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...

. By entering a TV Key through their remote control, the television viewer can access additional video services or interactive content authored in wTVML

WTVML

- Worldwide TV Mark-up Language :See also waptvWTVML is an XML based content format designed to allow web site operators to easily develop and deploy Interactive TV services, typically it reduces the time taken for web site operators to create a TV Site, and results in the Site being deployable on...

 and presented as a TV Site

TV Site

The name given to an Internet Site designed for TV.Unlike mobile and PC access, the use of internet sites through the TV has been small, mostly due to the poor user experience of many "web on TV" deployments, and the "walled garden" or closed business models adopted by many TV network...

. For this reason, TV Keys have been described as “numeric shortcuts to online services that can be accessed through a television remote control”.
A TV Key is viewed as one element of a converged broadcast and broadband experience that provides personalized web-style interactivity for television viewers on the TV. It has been designed to encourage usage of an interactive television services and video.
TV Keys have been available since April 2008 on the UK satellite TV provider Sky Digital

Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)

Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...

 (BSkyB). The TV Key service is available to all Sky subscribers

Subscription business model

The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....

through the interactive menu and all channels. TV Keys allow broadcasters, television network operators, content owners and advertisers to deliver new services that monetize the way viewers interact with the television.