Background

Fast approaching two decades since it first started broadcasting on linear TV from its London studios, Islam Channel has established itself at the heart of the British and global Muslim community, broadcasting a range of religious, current affairs, entertainment, and children’s TV content, with an Islamic focus.

Already available on Freeview, Sky, Virgin and the like, the company had spent the previous year ramping up its online presence on its social media platforms.

Challenge

The development of a new live-streaming and video-on-demand platform, meant that Islam Channel’s programmes would be easier to view online, but it didn’t resolve the issue of how to integrate its social media content, nor did it provide an environment to host editorial coverage. What’s more, following the company’s rebrand, its existing website had started to look somewhat tired compared to its new state-of-the-art apps.   

Solution

It would be all too easy to develop your standard, easy-to-use, does-the-job brochureware site. But such offerings don’t always deliver the best value to clients. What exactly do we mean here?

Yes, we’ve created a consistently branded, future-proofed editorial site. Yes, it’s intuitive and requires little-to-no-code knowledge from those editing content on the site. And yes, it houses a blog and media area featuring videos and articles. But thanks to platform of choice Webflow, our digital designers were also able to collaborate with P+S Technology to add features and functionality for real-time interaction and autonomous updates. Some examples…

Dynamic information that takes care of itself

Daily and monthly prayer times are displayed and automatically updated (no administrative editing needed) on both the homepage and a new, dedicated prayer page. All thanks to the writing of a small bit of code that allows Webflow to pull the relevant data from the London Unified Prayer Times’ API. A similar API-centric approach does the same for the channel’s TV programming guide.  

Moving people

The website of a company that offers compelling video content, deserves more than your basic static imagery. So, the site was delivered with on-page animations – without holding up the process; brief to delivery took just five weeks.

Results

A platform that Islam Channel CEO, Mohamed Harrath, can be proud of. Reflecting his forward-thinking digital ambitions, the site promotes the diversity of the Muslim experience, countering anti-Muslim sentiment by highlighting the stories which are important to the Muslim community and bringing people together.

Thanks to our new site, Islam Channel’s content – whether TV programmes, social media videos or blog articles – has now found a home in one slick, user-friendly online environment, where it can be viewed anywhere, anytime.