Morning! Well today I have been thinking about taking the web to our living rooms...
We had a very interesting presentation last week from a company called miniweb (www.miniweb.tv), who have a really good take on preserving the 'TV' experience and adding interactivity around it, rather than creating a whole new way of watching TV. I like this approach, as I for one don't like having to switch my computer on which is joined to the TV, switch inputs on my TV remote, fanny around with the wireless keyboard on my lap, load iPlayer and then have to wiggle the mouse every 20 minutes while I'm watching something (sound familiar?). I would rather just watch TV in the way I do it now (i.e. lying on the sofa with a bag of crisps and a remote control on my tummy) and click a couple of buttons on my remote to access on demand video, interactivity or the latest Kings of Leon Mp3...
It helps that their founder (Ian Valentine) knows a thing or two about interactivity from his days at Sky. They treat the TV experience as the default status (i.e. you don't access the TV elements from yet another panel or menu), and everything springs from that.
Miniweb's point of difference is that they use and XML standard to be device agnostic, and provide a consistant semantic across all devices... some have more whiz-o features but they degrade gracefully. Importantly they are providing a solution which works on today's hardware, which I think is key in driving this type of technology forwards. Yes, Canvas and Virgin Media may offer something more interactive down the line, but they both require the user to buy and connect new hardward (something I have commented on before in this blog).
There are a lot of players emerging in this space, although not quite as many as the 'online video platform' space, and I think it is going to be very interesting to see who comes out on top. I suspect that the TV manufactures themselves will provide strong competition to traditional STB solutions, and if a company like Miniweb provides a one-stop software solution that they can integrate, then they may be onto a winner. As with a lot of these things, I suspect it will come down to who gains the quickest market share, and with that in mind I wouldn't count out the 'cool' of Apple or money of Microsoft to steal the thunder of the ailing telcos, media companies or broadcasters in the current climate. watch this space.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
ITV WTF!
Radical times call for radical thinking, or so it seems at ITV, where a possible merger of C4, Five and ITV has been put on the table. Of course this might never go through, as there are anti-competition laws to be by-passed and I can't see Sky allowing it, as it would provide major competition for them (and the BBC, although that is a different arguement), but it is an interesting idea... change C4 into a pure public broadcasting service with no ad-funding, and divert all their funds to the other 2 channels, this could work. Plus it would provide the most adventurous sea-change in the industry in many many years... something it probably needs.
I for one wouldn't be too apposed to this, it would provide the cash for all three channels to start spending with indies again and actually all three have a good idea about the future of TV in the digital space, as they all have great IP to exploit, so let's see how this progresses.
I don't have any silver bullets on how to keep ITV from their downward spiral, but this could be one solution, so it shouldn't be discarded out of hand.
I for one wouldn't be too apposed to this, it would provide the cash for all three channels to start spending with indies again and actually all three have a good idea about the future of TV in the digital space, as they all have great IP to exploit, so let's see how this progresses.
I don't have any silver bullets on how to keep ITV from their downward spiral, but this could be one solution, so it shouldn't be discarded out of hand.
Friday, 13 February 2009
ITV staff braced for hundreds more job cuts
Proof if proof be need be (as someone once said). I was talking about things being hard for the TV industry not 2 days ago and today the Guardian publishes a story on ITV's troubles with their pension pot and their plan to 'slash jobs' as a reaction to the economic difficulties.
(See full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/13/itv-staff-hundreds-job-cuts)
This is pretty bad news for ITV, although I suspect they will weather the storm, but for independent producers it is really tough. I imagine that we will see a number put to the sword this year, unless the government steps up and changes legislation in product placement or loosens their requirements (as they have in the states) on other areas of revenue generation.
On the other hand, if there are cuts in the ITV productions team, we may actually see a slight increase in the amount of external content they commissioning. I know from a digital point of view that this is an exciting opportunity right now.
So what does ITV need from suppliers? I suspect the following critera wouldn't go a miss:
1. Agility
2. Financial stability
3. Creativity
4. Diversity
5. Practicality
I think point #5 is cruicial, as above all we all want to be here in 2010 onwards, so we must work together to pull through this. The industry has shown that small players can make a big impact, and this is true of content, strategy and digital delivery, so it is up to us in the industry to not bury our head in our hands, but to take agile, profitable, creative, diverse and practical ideas to the broadcasters in order to improve not only the business, but also the end user experience. After all, that is what we are all here for, to make money, and to entertain people - not neccessrily in that order!
Chin up people, we can do it!
(See full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/13/itv-staff-hundreds-job-cuts)
This is pretty bad news for ITV, although I suspect they will weather the storm, but for independent producers it is really tough. I imagine that we will see a number put to the sword this year, unless the government steps up and changes legislation in product placement or loosens their requirements (as they have in the states) on other areas of revenue generation.
On the other hand, if there are cuts in the ITV productions team, we may actually see a slight increase in the amount of external content they commissioning. I know from a digital point of view that this is an exciting opportunity right now.
So what does ITV need from suppliers? I suspect the following critera wouldn't go a miss:
1. Agility
2. Financial stability
3. Creativity
4. Diversity
5. Practicality
I think point #5 is cruicial, as above all we all want to be here in 2010 onwards, so we must work together to pull through this. The industry has shown that small players can make a big impact, and this is true of content, strategy and digital delivery, so it is up to us in the industry to not bury our head in our hands, but to take agile, profitable, creative, diverse and practical ideas to the broadcasters in order to improve not only the business, but also the end user experience. After all, that is what we are all here for, to make money, and to entertain people - not neccessrily in that order!
Chin up people, we can do it!
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
wow, what a start to the year!
Well, it has been a while, but we are really off and running with 2009!
This year brings all sorts of challenges to the broadcast industry, not least of which is "what the hell do we do with only a fraction of our ad revenue coming in..." - not something to be taken lightly when it comes to the potential loss of thousands of jobs.
We are working hard here at etv to define new models of content creation, and also new ways of delivering this content, and interacting with it, once it is on our mobile, TV, PC or games console. I have had the pleasure of meeting with both the BBC and Virgin Media recently, and they are both doing some really interesting things with their STB technology that will pretty much change the way we engage with TV. Obviously sky and others (such as Yahoo - please see previous postings) are also in this space, and I think this will provide a healthy scrap down the line for market share and audience interaction, hopefully we won't get to a place where we need 14 boxes, 2 PC's, 7 phones and an XBOX all tied together with a nest of cables...
This year brings all sorts of challenges to the broadcast industry, not least of which is "what the hell do we do with only a fraction of our ad revenue coming in..." - not something to be taken lightly when it comes to the potential loss of thousands of jobs.
We are working hard here at etv to define new models of content creation, and also new ways of delivering this content, and interacting with it, once it is on our mobile, TV, PC or games console. I have had the pleasure of meeting with both the BBC and Virgin Media recently, and they are both doing some really interesting things with their STB technology that will pretty much change the way we engage with TV. Obviously sky and others (such as Yahoo - please see previous postings) are also in this space, and I think this will provide a healthy scrap down the line for market share and audience interaction, hopefully we won't get to a place where we need 14 boxes, 2 PC's, 7 phones and an XBOX all tied together with a nest of cables...
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