MAD Perspectives Blog

September has been all about IBC for me for the past 10 years. In light of the dynamic nature of the broadcast industry and its influence on our daily lives, this is my second of three blogs that will examine the intersection of the Internet, Social Media and TV.

Connected TV has been a growing conversation over the past few years.  At the most simplistic level, Connected TV means that most new TVs have an internet connection.  At a more complex level, it's interesting to think about what that internet connection brings to the table.  Business models shift, new content providers emerge and consumer interaction increases. Connected TV merges what have been called the "lean forward" PC experience and the "lean back" TV experience.

The manner in which we consume broadcast content has been changing dramatically since the 1990s.  Cable television change the model, here in the U.S., forever.  We were OK with the concept of paying for access to wider range of content.  The Internet introduced us to online content and while porn and sports paved the way for meaningful online revenue models, we did not enjoy this content in our comfy living rooms.  IPTV shifted the landscape once again, with telcos able to offer television services on par with and competitive to services provided by Cable and Satellite Operators.  We also got used to watching our favorite programs on our schedule, not the broadcasters schedule, thanks to VCRs, TiVO and DVRs.

Now we have connected TV, meaning that content destined for the PC via a broadband connection can now be delivered to your TV.  However, what is more likely to happen is the emergence of apps on your TV screen.  The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad have forever changed our expectations of how we will access content.  Pay a reasonable fee (or nothing!), download the app onto your device and enjoy the content of your choice.  Broadcast program schedules and content available as an app - imagine that!  I actually like the idea of doing away with tiered payment programs and moving to an a la carte menu represented as apps.  I'm happy to pay $1.99 for the USA network programs.  Now, take the next small step and imagine the value to advertisers.  Real, meaningful insight into who watches each network and its programs.  Add in, social media integration and Nielsen ratings will seem archaic.

Vendors are already lining up to enable the development and delivery of apps to television manufacturers.  At this year's IBC, Cisco was a premier sponsor of the Connect World Zone and hosted a discussion called "Lessons Learned:  Implementing New Business Models".  Here are a few tidbits that reinforce the shift in digital video and online content:

     - By 2014, each home will be receiving video on an average 10 screens (e.g., TV, tablet, smartphone)

     - Broadband will see a 4x increase in speed allowing even faster connections

     - More non-media content will be available from traditional and non-traditional sources

A slew of vendors made announcements in the past month highlighting their capabilities for Connected TV.  The initial focus is to enable the representation of content as an app and get that app on all Internet enabled TVs.  The battle is on to see who will dominate the the operating systems of these TVs.  Watch closely to see which partnerships are announced and what new products emerge.

How do you want to access and consume content?  Will Angry Birds fly onto the Big Screen?  Yes!  Are you already a dual screen household, meaning you watch TV while also consuming content on your tablet or smartphone?  I know I do.

What's your perspective?

If you ask media pundits about THE big innovation of the last millennium, they will tell you it was the TV.  Social media is garnering a lot of attention in the early part of the new millennium, but where does social media go next?  A natural assumption is that TV and social media will have a marriage of sorts.  One thought is that news broadcasters will incorporate social media more prominently into their every day actions.  Most local broadcasters take advantage of user generated video, regardless of quality, to capture traumatic events.  Here in New York, multiple amateur videos of US Airways Flight 1549 were incorporated into local broadcasts about the event.  But, is this enough? 

Morning “news” programs and talk show hosts, such as the last hour of the Today show or Oprah, now incorporate email and tweets into their daily routine.  Typically the hosts have an assistant, on or off screen, who is online following the discussion and informing the hosts on-air as the hot topics.  This seems to be a natural fit as these programs already have a well defined communities.   From another perspective, marketers are using social media networks to gauge interest and popularity of network programs.  American Idol and Lost are just two examples of programs that have huge followers on both Twitter and Facebook.   And, 77% of broadcast newsrooms are using social platforms to microblog news links to their followers. 

In fact, one could assume that broadcast TV is a natural fit for social media.  TV has driven coffee room and water cooler conversations for years.  Now those conversations happen on Facebook or Twitter.  However, the challenge remains that TV, for now, is” lean back” experience regardless of watching on the network’s pre-determine schedules or our own ad hoc DVR-enabled schedules.  Social media is a “lean-forward” experience.  We need to be on our PCs or mobile devices to post content.  How do we bring the experiences together?

Software vendors at broadcast conferences such as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and International Broadcast Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam have been demonstrating user interfaces which incorporate both Facebook and Twitter.  Are we ready to give up part of our 42” HD viewing space to tweet on the TV screen during our favorite sporting event, reality TV program or sitcom?  Of course, this means sitting on the couch with a keyboard.  The interest in internet connected TVs will certainly enhance the functionally.   However, today’s 18-30 year olds aren’t watching network programming on their TVs, they are watching on their PCs or mobile devices.  Is an integrated social media/TV experience needed?  Do we even care?  Perhaps it’s about trying out new tools and seeing what works.  And, maybe what doesn’t work will drive innovation to something beyond social media on our TV screens.

I'm on my way to IBC (International Broadcasters Conference) in Amsterdam, September 10-14.  This conference brings together the global thought leaders and vendors in the broadcast and new media space.  As expected, the conference agenda focuses on those technologies related to the creation, management and distribution of video.  In particular, the delivery and distribution of video content continues to evolve simply because we as consumers desire to access content on a variety of different devices which access content through a similar variety of network protocols.

Watching the trends in the broadcast industry where quality is of the utmost concern, usually paves the way for understanding options available to the enterprise.  While the enterprise typically does not require a 24x7 broadcast center, they do need to understand the challenges of creating, storing, editing, promoting, distributing and consuming video content.  I'm looking forward to seeing what's new!  I'm also interested to understand how this industry is incorporating social media in a more strategic manner. 

What's your perspective?