Sky News Panel

FAQs

How do I join?

To join the Sky News Panel click here. You will need to fill in your details and we will then send you a registration email by way of confirmation. When you receive this, please answer the questions and submit them. This will only take a couple of minutes. Once you've done this, your profile will be live and we will be able to send you surveys.

How often will I be invited to take a survey?

Once you have completed our registration survey, we will invite you from time to time to participate in surveys. We know your time is valuable, so our surveys are short. They usually take a couple of minutes to complete. Very occasionally they might take a little longer than this.

To participate, click on the link provided in the email and follow the instructions.

How often may I participate in any one survey?

We treat the Sky News Panel as professional market research. Therefore our surveys are by invitation only, and to ensure the highest standards of professional research you can take any given survey only one.

How will I know if there is a survey for me to complete?

We will send you an email invitation with a link to a survey. Under normal circumstances, we will not contact you more than once per week. You are under no obligation to participate in any survey. However, if after several attempts you do not participate in any surveys, we may consider you an inactive member.

What's in it for me?

Our aim is to offer you interesting surveys that we hope you will find fun and rewarding. The Sky News Panel is an opportunity to have your opinion, contribute to a topical debate, and make your feelings known. Where possible, or where surveys are longer than usual, we will try to offer an incentive — eg vouchers for shopping online, or cash prizes.

How do I change/update my profile?

Make sure you are logged in, and click on the My Profile link.

I have forgotten my username or password — what do I do?

Click on the "Forgotten Password" link next to the log in.

Do I need to log in more than once each time I visit?

No, you just need to log in once when you visit the site. You will be automatically logged out after 20 minutes of inactivity, so if you leave the page open for a while and come back then you may need to log in again.

Do I need to log in each time I visit the skynewspanel.com website?

Only if you want to participate in more surveys, view survey results or update your profile. Other pages are accessible whether you log in or not.

Technical Questions

What are the site requirements when visiting the skynewspanel.com website?

Web browsers

The following browsers have been tested and found to show no serious problems: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0, Netscape 6/7, Mozilla Firefox 1.5+ and Safari.

Operating systems

The following operating systems have been tested and found to show no serious problems: Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP, Mac OS X, Linux/KDE.

Monitor resolutions

We recommend you have a screen resolution of at least 800x600.

I have registered but not yet received a survey

We don't send every survey out to every panellist. This is to avoid overloading your inbox. Currently, we only send surveys out to 80% of our panel. We also target our surveys by location, so if you live in the USA and a survey is for UK residents only you won't receive it.
I am an AOL user: does your website support this?

Yes, there should be no problem accessing the site through AOL, either with AOL's integrated browser or using a separate standalone browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla.

I am having problems with Hotmail? What could be the problem?

For users that are having problems, you may wish to try the following options:

Use an alternative browser:

Open a new browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Highlight the link and copy/paste it into the address field of the new browser window.

Use an alternative mail application:

Programs such as Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express can be set up to download and read your Hotmail accounts. Please follow the step-by-step instructions provided by the software.

General Questions

Are the Sky News Panel's polls accurate and representative?

The Sky News Panel contains a wide-ranging demographic. Some of our surveys are targeted at specific profiles but, where surveys are measuring national opinion, the surveys are weighted to the UK population: so yes, they are representative.

Sometimes polls are closed after only a few hours. Why?

On rare occasions we conduct surveys which require results virtually immediately. This means we have only a few hours to gather responses from you.

Who reads the findings?

Results are a gauge of public opinion and as such are usually shown on the site for all panellists to see. In some cases, results are hidden from the site because they have been bought by a company, political group, trade union or media group. We can therefore only publish the results with their permission.

Is the Sky News Panel neutral?

The aim of the panel is to allow the public to comment on current political events and topical issues through surveys. Our journalists come from a wide variety of backgrounds and one of the main principles is to be as neutral as possible when covering news stories. Sky News wants to encourage consumers to express their opinions on events going on around them and share their viewpoints with other members of the public.

Did you receive my survey?

If you received a "Thank you" message after you clicked the "Finish" button at the end of the survey, your survey data was received with no difficulties.

What happens to my personal information and the answers I give?

You can be assured that all the survey information you give us will remain anonymous and completely confidential at all times. We will not sell your data on to third parties. For details, please see our privacy statement.

How do I cancel my membership?

As a Sky News Panel member, you will receive our email invitations to complete surveys. If you change your main, when you receive an email invitation, you can click the hyperlink at the bottom of the email and you will no longer receive survey invitations.

Unsubscribe requests take effect immediately.

What do I do if I need help?

If you experience a technical problem, please email us at help@skynewspanel.com.