For an informed view on connected entertainment in the UK & Ireland, visit Cue Entertainment
Smart TV
viewers are not as smart as they should be, says a survey published by research
agency YouGov. Just 53% of owners understand that the internet connection is
the defining component of the device. Without broadband, a smart TV might be a
very good TV but it is not a connected TV, which is the whole point of a
smart TV.
The
YouGov survey claims that many smart TV customers are not seduced by the promise
of “the internet on your TV” but seek merely to “future-proof” their purchase.
Manufacturers know they must spoon-feed new owners with an automated routine
that connects to the nearest wifi network almost as soon as they switch on.
This assumes, however, that the proud buyers know the name of their home
network and can remember the password.
Despite
these uncertainties, YouGov Media Consulting Director Dan Brilot says there is
a hard core of early adopters who know exactly what they want from a smart TV.
He says that Sony is seen as the premium brand favoured by many early tech
adopters but Samsung works the hardest to bring smart TV to the masses through
its advertising campaigns. It also leads the way in the availability of apps on
the sets.
Brilot
says that linear TV is still at the core of things that most people watch, but
the next generation, which knows how to search for content on the internet,
will pay increased attention to Video On Demand services.
Although
upcoming generations are adept at Bing, Google and other search engines, it
also is evident that few venture beyond the first page of results. What Brilot
calls the “new mode of serving and searching content” is not necessarily the
way ahead for connected TV, since it tends to drill down to the lowest common
denominator rather than to open up the joys of the entire film catalogue.
The
number of “hits” on a particular search term influences heavily many of the
mathematical formulas (algorithms) that search engines use. They are unlikely
to suggest anything from deep catalogue unless one of the stars should die or
otherwise make the headlines. Well-respected sites such as IMDb offer
suggestions, along the lines of “People who liked this also liked…” but this
tends to favour popular content over lesser-known gems.
That is
why effective content discovery has become so important to broadcasters and
connected-TV providers.
Music
services, notably Spotify in Europe and Pandora in North America, provide a
genre-based selection for users but a film alternative has yet to appear
despite some excellent work by TVGenius (now RedDiscover) and Rovi. Too many
online movie sites rely on DVD pack shots together with a bland content
synopsis. This might be enlivened by voting systems – as with the Rotten
Tomatoes site – or “like” buttons that alert your social networking friends to
your tastes.
If you
take the racks in an average branch of HMV, spread the titles across several
hundred connected-TV screens and hand viewers a remote control, you do not have
content discovery. After they browse multiple pages, each with eight titles,
users soon conclude that there is “nothing worth watching” beyond the
blockbuster titles.
The best
“computerised curation” can work well for a limited catalogue but it will be a
while before discovery engines approach the expertise of an informed human.
Such systems have little personality and no whimsy.
An
informed review, even in sound only, would be so much better than the current
shop-fronts of Netflix, Lovefilm, Flixster, Blinkbox, MuzuTV and others on
connected TV, which do little to generate business for their owners. Potential
subscribers are expected to sign up with little or no evidence of the quality
of streaming video that they can expect; only Lovefilm offers a short
promotional video clip.
What is
needed is a human approach, as quirky and unpredictable as John Peel’s
25,000-disc record shelf (launched this month), which sandwiches ABBA between
Polish punk rock band Abaddon and Afrosynth group Abangani. The man himself is
absent sadly but there is room for his present-day equivalent, albeit
pre-recorded, who would top and tail each online film or TV selection with
personal insights and unexpected recommendations. Where are the media studies
graduates when you need them?
The need
to be able to sort through and find content will grow ever more vital. The
half-year Global Internet Phenomena report from broadband firm Sandvine
predicts that the total amount of mobile network traffic in North America in
2012 will be around 1.4 Exabytes, of which audio and video streams will
comprise more than 50%. An Exabyte is a very large amount of data indeed: the
consumption of online entertainment content in 2012 will equal the amount of
mobile data from all sources in 2011.
Even the
best forecasters get things wrong and Sandvine acknowledges that it missed the
mark in its previous prediction that real-time entertainment would make up
38.4% of mobile network traffic by the end of 2012. From data gathered between
September 2011 and March 2012, the report concludes “…real-time (streamed)
entertainment will cross the 60% threshold in late 2014 or early 2015 and will
plateau around 70%.” By then, total mobile data traffic will be more than three
times what it is today.
By any
measure, that represents a large number of video clips but it is only a part of
the story. When mobile users arrive home, they don’t leave their device by the
door. Whether by smartphone or tablet, the domestic wifi network takes the
strain in what Sandvine calls “roaming at home.” Mobiles account for 9% of all
data sent over fixed broadband networks in the US and receive more than 15% of
all real-time entertainment consumed. One in four YouTube videos delivered over
fixed broadband networks is destined for a handheld wireless device.
Europe
is not far behind in the consumption of real-time entertainment and accounts
for 46% of peak traffic. Sandvine’s report says, “BBC’s iPlayer is the dominant
long-content streaming service, accounting for 6.4% of peak period downstream
traffic. Nevertheless, in the two months since launch, Netflix has risen to 2%
of prime time downstream traffic, which is no small feat.”
This
statistic should be set against the popularity of Netflix in the US where the
service accounts for almost one third of peak downstream traffic on fixed
networks. The report points out that competition is more entrenched in the UK
and says that Amazon’s Lovefilm service and SkyGo offer “more local brand
equity”.
For any
online content service to succeed, the interface with users must be easy to set
up, simple to use and accessible to all. The YouGov survey says that 47% of all
smart TV owners connect to the internet at least once a week, most frequently in
households with pre-school children. Although this bodes well for the future,
it rather misses the point. A connected TV should be connected at all times.
The transition between online and on-air should be seamless.
“There
appears to be a strong consensus across the industry that the collision of
broadcasting with broadband will define the next decade,” says a report from
technology agency Red Bee Media (owner of RedDiscover). Titled “Tomorrow
Calling”, it’s a report on the long-term evolution of broadcasting in the UK
based on interviews with and contributions from senior industry figures.
As the
digital switchover ends and digital services replace analogue UHF
transmissions, the line between broadcasting and broadband will become ever
more indistinct.
According
to one contributor to the report, “In 2020, the notion that we’ll be able to
point at something called the broadcasting industry with distinct revenue
streams simply won’t hold. As the underlying platforms evolve, broadcasters are
going to face competition for their traditional revenue streams and are going
to diversify into new areas.”
Two-thirds
of respondents said that digital distribution would replace physical media
almost entirely by 2020. For that to happen, the CE industry has to commission
a lot more usability testing among consumers. To play a Blu-ray disc is easy
for everyone. To stream the same title to a connected TV assumes a familiarity
with technology that just does not exist.
A
qualified installer might commission the system – at a cost – but something as
simple as power failure or loss of broadband connection can reset all the
parameters to square one. It is a conundrum for TV makers, who would love to
connect more smart TVs but are concerned about the technical literacy of
viewers.
For even if half of all owners understand the capabilities of their
smart TV, the remainder find it hard to cope.
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