Creating a CE Channel

October 11, 2012, TV Next Conference, Santa Clara, CA—The role of apps in TV and entertainment is growing, causing changes in all areas of the industry. A panel comprised of Eric Anderson from Samsung, Brian Glicklich from Glenn Beck TV, Tom Morgan from Net2.TV, and Kun Gao from Crunchyroll considered the issues. Mark Donnigan from Dune HD moderated.

Potential for interactivity and unlimited collaboration?
Gao stated that the demand for CE devices is high, but 60-70 percent are not PCs. The second screen provides a good experience, but you still need infrastructure for basic content
Morgan noted that people still watch TV. Programming into the TV market still has to look at pay for TV, new channels, before attacking the second screen interactivity.
Glicklich avowed that it takes a lot to build a channel. There are lots of steps needed to replicate the user experience, and the replacement technology needs to have a consistent user interface.
Anderson commented that changes in viewer habits require that the operator keep up with the changes and make them more fluid. Navigation and storytelling have to improve to keep up. When content is customized for the second screen, everything in existence has to be retrofit for the new content types. All great experiences need metrics, analytics, and trials.

Examples of transformations?
Morgan called out a consumer revolution. New brands are emerging, so it is like cable in the ’80’s when an inflection point appeared on the landscape. For example, Disney is unique. it has the best brands and is unencumbered by fear. YouTube is a TV channel for new content.
Anderson added that TV is exploding. The top 20-30 channels are on different platforms and the new programmers are offering more types of content. Consumer behaviors are also changing, with marathon and catch up watching.
Glicklich considered that the deployment of the cloud for delivery to the multi-platform target. Viewers can purchase and deliver from any device. Glen Beck is mostly watched on PCs through a mirror wall, or on mobile. There is a lot of friction to deliver on other platforms.
Gao suggested that any device will be consumer electronics in two years. Netflix, Playstation, Xbox are the major platforms today. The technologies to deliver a seamless experience exists. Netflix has a good user interface to address their content and active programming. There is a new market for creators.
Morgan appended that the transition for programming is slow, because programming is an art, and not an algorithm. More content will move to the long forms, but issues on monetization, standards, and details for ad insertion still need a lot of work.

Apps and the architecture for ads?
Morgan responded that a hub feds channels. Programming, navigation, and ads are related, but most are weak. They have low quality and format issues. The business practice standards don’t exist yet for monetizing the new content.
Glicklich opined that you have to monetize through subscriptions, and aggregate audiences to add ads. Build up on existing technologies for new products. Starting out, the industry has a low concern for active responses, but it is moving to other platforms well.
Anderson stated that ads need target platforms, so the smart TV can be the base for a lot of activity. Challenges for the game consoles, is how to measure activity there. The options are to develop smart hubs and feed the ads through them. Developers could feed ads in-app, or in-line with a linear feed. Content recognition tools are needed for automatic ad insertion. The industry has to experiment and measure.
Gao offered don’t serve to subscribers, but serve to the other viewers. The existing technologies have no standards, so every device has specific models. And ads don’t exist if you don’t have 10 million users to get attention from the advertisers. Control the technology to have a smooth user experience.

Browsing, search, and discovery?
Anderson proposed that consumer electronics helps users get what they want through search recommendations. The challenge is to use the search to get to the metadata. The integration will work to determine placement of results. The interfaces seem smarter with other people in the room for other interfaces like voice or gestures. One issue that keeps coming up is privacy. User interfaces are an iterative process, complicated by rights, legal, and consumer inertia.
Glicklich posited that users want what they want, when, where, and how. Their increasing expectations are for something similar to what exists, but easier. Companies integrate technologies, but skip the user interface and experience. Developers need a common reference point, but also must simplify the interface to drive user understanding. Content navigation is getting more complex.
Gao offered get attention by increasing the amount of premium content. the user experience is still in its early stages, so there are lots of issues and experiments to solve. Good brands build forgiveness. The world is moving to two similar, but different designs, mobile and TV/tablet. Use the same user interface across platforms and understand how users watch and how to feed them content.

Challenges to porting content to other platforms?
Gao offered geo-delivery. The industry needs to get uniform standards, because each variation still needs a profile per platform. We need a cloud platform that can re-encode across these profiles and we need scalable codecs.
Morgan contradicted this that NTSC has a single standard for HLS that only has one profile to reduce the friction. In comparison, Netflix has 26 SDKs and supports 700 platforms.
There needs to be a consistent cloud-based user interface.
Glicklich commented that content producers are not like software, we need to move towards a easier license infrastructure.
Morgan retorted that licenses are not the problem, but we need standards for formats.
Gao noted that they built their backend because of the lack of standards. NLS is not a single standard.
Anderson wondered about portal standards. We need some rules and architectures to simplify the tasks. Consumer electronics companies want to differentiate their products with proprietary elements, but we need to converge. Content providers have to prioritize to those platforms that matter to them. Limit the efforts to those that you really want.

HTML5?
Anderson considered that we are getting there.
Glicklich said that it is a moving target
Morgan offered that in the cloud it is simple and TV like. A heavy user interface is hard, but straight video is ok on HTML5.
Gao disagreed that you still need Adobe for security. It is now native for Apple, Android, and the Playstation, and as a native user interface it can be fluid.

Advanced features of HTL5 and models?
Gao responded that if you want to have a seamless interface, you need to go native. You can up-sell from free trials, so HTML5 is acceptable. For security and video delivery, it is questionable.

Architecture for ads? Server-side insert, apps?
Morgan compared a browser-based with a smart TV. The browser can handle dynamic insertion, a TV-class environment. In comparison, the smart TV cannot have an error 404 and a smart TV is not the same as the Web.
Gao suggested that it is still early. A smart hub or in an app will enable an evolving interface. The industry needs analytics and data capture for the ads to be viable.

App developers?
Morgan offered the use of ads in the app and monetize in that manner.
Glicklich suggested focusing on core content. Take your program to a set of devices, manage technologies, deliver and monetize.

Advice for apps developers?
Gao counseled you need to work on the basic experience first, since the foundations for good delivery don’t exist. After getting the app right, then work on ads and other features.
Morgan commented crawl, walk, then run. Setup the app to be interactive to reduce the ad load and inventory. Getting the pieces right requires more involvement .
Glicklich considered how to be interactive is important. Time shifting and replicating DVRs should make it easier to sell.
Anderson suggested that you need consumer research to find changed behaviors. Learn the new patterns and use interactivity to hold, vote, etc. It is important to know where you are going and how to support the initiatives.

Disrupt the TV business? Do apps exist?
Anderson noted that the industry is doing fine. Cable and MSOs are losing consumers, but there are lots of new things in TV coming from consumer electronics, broadcasters, and content providers.

Broadcast and direct consumer contact?
Glicklich agreed that TV is getting small changes in audiences, and the result is new business models. Bundling is not consumer friendly, so content delivery through custom packages is the way to go.
Morgan complained that there is nothing on with 100 channels. Viewers are trying to find ways to find new things, so discovery is important.
Gao opined that consumers want unbundled cable and TV. Netflix gets about $100 per user per year, while Dish gets ten times that amount. Users are willing to pay for good content.