a year of many players

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.