TV and the net: the game is up

March 25, 2012
For an informed view on connected entertainment in the UK & Ireland, visit Cue Entertainment 

MTV calls its young viewers “millennials” and it says they know what they want and that is a mash-up of TV, the internet and games, and they want it now. The internet and television have joined forces finally and irrevocably, and it knows what it wants to be when it grows up.

The annual event that started eight years ago as IPTV World, flirted with Digital Home and courted the enemy for the past two years in the guise of IP&TV World Forum, has decided what it wants to be when it grows up.

From next year, broadcasters, telecoms, service providers and consumer electronics companies will make their way to Olympia in London for what will thereafter be called: TV Connect.

The IP&TV World Forum 2012, held in mid-March, embraced Olympia 2 in addition to the main hall at the London venue to accommodate an unlikely collection of creative, technical and engineering exhibitors and delegates and a comprehensive conference agenda.

More than ever before, speakers at the event discussed the content that will fill connected screens in the years to come, none more so than the keynote speaker did on Day 1: MTV and VH1 Digital General Manager, Kristen Frank (pictured). She said: “No amount of technology will make a bad story good but it can help to make a good story great.”

For supporters of traditional linear entertainment, her presentation was unsettling. She pointed out that there is a cohort of “millennials” in the US today – more than 100 million young people born in the 1980s and ’90s – who are eager for a change in the linear entertainment landscape.

“They are very different to any generation we have seen before at MTV and if they are not your No. 1 demographic today, they will be soon. It is invaluable to know what motivates them,” Frank said as she introduced research data compiled by the company.

She noted that 10,000 young people turn 21 every day in the US and predicted the “gamification of everything” and its importance in the future of content creation. As they enter adulthood, “the average millennial will have spent more than 10,000 hours gaming, the equivalent of going to school every day for seven straight years, and that makes them experts,” she said.

In her view, game-like dynamics are important: it is not just a matter of putting gaming into content: “That will drive emerging products and the content that will be important to this generation. Millennials raised in an on-demand, push-button real-time world want it their way: 24/7, always on and now! They use this absolute choice to customise products and experiences to suit and reflect their individuality.”

Frank did not just preach the merits of change; she also laid out MTV’s plans for what she calls, “The power of story-telling without borders.” It will be a game-like interactive experience that allows fans to “friend” and interact with characters in real time. A “choose your own” adventure mystery, the format will run parallel to the action on the TV screen but will link to the show. She said: “The way in which fans interact with the characters they love will directly affect their personal story. There will be a unique story for each user, played out in secret videos, text messages from characters to the fans’ phones and status updates that will help them solve the mystery.”

She spiced her presentation with comments from millennials, whom she described as the authentic voices of MTV’s target audience. 

“It would be awesome if I was watching a movie and could decide which way I wanted the story to go,” said one. “I wouldn’t post something online if no-one is going to read it. Why would I watch something that is not watching me?” asked another.

Franks summed up by saying that it is critical for the content creation industry to listen to this potential audience and embrace the changes proposed. While content will always be king, the ways in which audiences consume and interact with content change constantly as we enter an era in which the traditional walls come down and creators can drive the narrative across all screens.

“From the advent of radio, movies and television content, inspiration always follows technical innovation. Social media is no different. Social innovation has already helped us to tell better stories and, for us, it really is ‘all about story-telling’,” said Frank.

Industry analysts Point Topic released a report prepared by the industry organisation Broadband Forum to coincide with the IP&TV World event. It marks the moment in Q4 2011 when Chinese subscribers (12.52 million) toppled France (12.16 million) from pole position in the table of countries with the most IPTV connections. Europe retained the top regional spot, where French subscribers outnumbered sixth-place Germany (1.97 million) by almost 6:1. Belgium is next, with approximately 1.25 million IPTV connections and the Netherlands took 10th place with just under 1 million viewers. Russian IPTV connections more than doubled during 2011, from 495,000 to 1.15 million to place the country eighth in the global league.

The potential audience for connected TV continues to grow as the number of broadband subscribers ended 2011 at a shade under the 600 million mark, an annual growth rate of 12.3%. In the European region, the total number of lines at the end of Q4 stood at more than 177 million as Germany added 1.8 million new lines to retain its place as the most connected country in Europe, with 28.5 million lines. France followed in fifth place (22.8 million) and the UK was in seventh place with 20.7 million subscribers, an annual growth rate of 5.8%. Inevitably, China topped the table, with 158.2 million of its citizens online, 20.4% up on the previous 12-month period.

Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said, “This is an exciting return to higher growth figures and points to a strengthening in the broadband market … we are seeing broadband move into the daily lives of more and more people the world over.”

Of the many companies to exhibit at the event, the quality assurance experts at Agama Technologies represent the epitome of an industry that has found its place finally in the world. IPTV delivers its entertainment content over a closely monitored circuit with a guaranteed quality of service, which is why companies such as France Telecom and BT Vision majored on dedicated connections.

Over-the-Top (OTT) video, as delivered from Lovefilm, Netflix, Spotify, iTunes and others, has been variable at best but as bandwidth and broadband speed has increased, so has the viability of OTT delivery. Agama Technologies Product Management Director Johan Gorsjo says: “Service quality will be crucial for securing revenue streams, maintaining a satisfied customer base and enforcing service-level agreements. 

OTT technology represents a tremendous opportunity for operators to reach customers and support new ways of consuming media, such as ‘TV Everywhere’. At the same time it is more complex, with new requirements and challenges to ensure the customer experience.”

At this year’s event, OTT technology moved into the mainstream. It coincided with the realisation by content creation and delivery companies that there is at last a financially viable application for all that buried glass and copper.

One of Kristin Frank’s millennial voices sums up the rising demand from the new generation for interactive content: “If you look at every industry, you can see how it has been completely disrupted by the internet. It needs to be something that is in-line with the online generation. 

The question is: if TV were created now, and the internet already existed, what could we do?”