Ok Google ?

Google launched the conversational search at the Google I/O a few weeks ago. The no hands searching with an impressive AI to talk back to you makes searching for news, people, events, items a whole new experience. Even if you do feel silly talking to your computer.

After watching all those shows and movies, where the futuristic character says, "Ok computer......" We are actually doing this now.

Even before Google announced the update at Google I/O, the tiny microphone icon that sits on the far right corner of the search bar was there – has been for the past two years. It just wasn’t as sophisticated prior to the recent update, and not quite as fun to use as it is now.

Intelligent search that understands the words here, there , is , it and knows to use them in conjunction with what you previously had asked. 

Here is an example, first we ask;

"Who is David Cameron?"

I get an audio response ( this is configurable, so you can turn it off!) that states "Here is some information about David Cameron".

Cool, next we ask, "Who is he married to?"

The audible response, "he is married to Samantha Cameron since 1996" Plus a new result set is placed in the view.

Soon we will not even have to click the mic to start a voice search. Simply state "Ok Google........."

Check out my tests of the conversational search.

Does the future of TV belong to the APP?

Really, the future of TV is with an APP? Well yes. If you think about it.

Smart TV sales on rise

Published by Andrew Ladbrook November 28, 2012 the headline was 'Smart-TV sales will exceed 50 million globally in 2012, but most will remain unconnected' Source -Informa Telecoms & Media

Smart TVs are becoming common place and technology has moved on driving the cost of these units down.

The Internet will get faster, more reliable and more available

According to Akamai, a high-performance Web and analytics company, is that “the global average connection speed experienced a 14% quarter-over-quarter increase in the first three months of 2012. 

The telecommunications infrastructure is improving and becoming more widely available to a wider catchment. Bandwidth is increasing and this is opening the doors for the future of TV.

Tablet and Smart Phone viewing habits will increase

A new survey from the BBC reveals how tablets are influencing TV viewing habits, but hints at problems ahead for mobile advertisers.

The survey saw BBC World News and bbc.com/news work with InSites Consulting and polled 3,600 consumers across Australia, France, Germany, India, Poland, South Africa, UAE and the U.S. It was supposedly the largest study into news consumption habits.

Some of the key findings from the report included the result that 83% of tablet owners now use their device alongside the TV, while 43% of tablet owners now claim to watch more TV than they did five years ago.

Research also indicated that almost half (42%) of 25-34 year olds are now likely to turn on the TV when hunting for breaking news, with 66% then turning to the internet in a bid to find out more information.

In contrast, users turned to laptops (29%), smartphones (18%) and tablets (10%) far less often as their primary device for discovering news.

Streaming 4K video will happen long before linear TV supports 4K video

Already a favorite service in many households, Netflix has become an indispensable service for on-demand entertainment consumption. Recently Netflix published its Long term view, in which it stated: "Streaming 4k video will happen long before linear TV supports 4k video.” 

This is a very likely thesis. It may be a while before 4kTVs are cheap enough to reach many households and terrestrial providers will be in no hurry to put the infrastructure in place to support such broadcasting yet.

Internet video advertising will be personalized and relevant

As more consumers flock to the web to access short-form videos and television programming, videos ads online have proven successful investments for brands, advertisers and publishers.

Meanwhile, advertising on the web becomes more sophisticated and in-tune with viewer needs and expectations, completion rates for video ads placed online are growing.

In summary, yes I believe that the future of TV could be with the APP. However with all of this said, given recent moves in technology, all it takes is one software behemoth or a scrappy start up to leapfrog the Smart TV concept entirely and deliver the real promise of socially interactive TV. 

Twitter and TV ..... Amplify

When watching a live programme, most of us have our smart phone to hand and use Twitter to see what other like minded people are saying about the programme currently on air.

Twitter in itself is the 2nd screen. 


The vast majority of the online public conversation around TV currently happens on Twitter – 95 percent, according to Crimson Hexagon. Half of all national Super Bowl commercials had hashtags on them, helping guide viewers to the collective conversation. And you can’t turn on the news without hearing a Tweet referenced.

However, Twitter are taking this a step further. Twitter Amplify was announced recently. Twitter Amplify is a new advertising product for media and consumer brands to promote television clips on Twitter.  Basically it's a short 5 or 10 second video clip from a media brand accompanied by an ad from one of their advertising partners, which is then promoted by Twitter so it can be viewed by all users.

This is taking off in the states, Twitter has already teamed up with ESPN and Ford to bring followers real-time, dual-screen sponsorship and in-Tweet video clips of action replays from the college football match.

I expect this to hit Europe at the next big live sporting events, Wimbledon 2013, Tour de France. Watch this space.

Twitter now has a valid revenue stream, by partnering with broadcasters and advertisers to promote product and content.

Glenn Brown, director of Promoted Content and Sponsorship's wrote in a blog post:


'We think these types of two-screen sponsorship's are a win-win-win. Users receive spectacular, timely content that rounds out their TV experience or reminds them to tune in. Powered by Promoted Tweets, broadcasters reach new audiences and open up new business lines. Brand advertisers get, for the first time, an integrated cross-platform tool for reaching the social conversation wherever it happens.'


I see this working for sports events and action replays or teasers etc. To get the audience to tune in to the game on another medium, TV and Radio.

However i see this as a massive turn off if we start to get bombarded with advertising tweets promoting product. As Glen stated in his blog post

'The ads promise to help advertisers extend their messages beyond broadcasters’ TV audiences to reach their Twitter followers as well. They’ll also serve to remind Twitter users to tune in'

Read Glenn Browns full blog post at Twitter amplify, advertising on Twitter

All comments and discussion welcome....

James

How long will the linear broadcast model remain?

Discussion item........

With the traditional broadcasting methods, of tv shows being aired at scheduled times. Combined with the new generation of viewers digesting content when they want to, how long does the linear broadcasting model have? Will you cut the cord and join the growing trend?

Personally, i believe we will have a hybrid platform of linear and on demand delivery for some years, say 10 to 15. 

With these types of evolution's the technology, content and commercial factors will be the key drivers for viewers and service providers.

Netflix has published a long term view in reference to this topic. Quotes such as 'Over the coming decades and across the world, Internet TV will replace linear TV.' and 'Apps will replace channels, remote controls will disappear, and screens will proliferate.' 

If you want read more find it here http://ir.netflix.com/long-term-view.cfm 

Perhaps we should be looking at the bigger picture !

In discussion with my colleague today we discussed this issue. Current online services in the UK, Apple TV, Netflix, LoveFilm, NOW TV, Sky and Virgin, to name a few, excluding the national UK broadcasters, all offer on demand TV episodes and Movies. However the content is not always what you want it to be. Material which is behind the times, not up to date. Secondly to quote my better half, you spend just as long searching for the content than you do watching it. Almost scavenging for our TV. Do we need to be fed our TV, are we that lazy it is a chore to go and choose something to watch?

Content providers such as Apple TV, Netflix, LoveFilm, NOW TV, Sky and Virgin, I agree, have a very difficult bridge to cross when it comes to revenue. The current model is to provide air time for products aimed at audiences, since the introduction of PVRs most of these commercials are lost to the fast forward key!

The new model, based upon a subscription fee needs to be a fair one. No customer will want to pay over the odds for a service that is perceived to have old out of date content.

In the UK we have a number of free and subscription Digital TV offerings combining traditional delivery tied to a PVR and on demand functionality. These services are provided by, to name a few:

YouView, http://tinyurl.com/8c25qoo 
Freetime from Freesat http://tinyurl.com/c782n6t 
Sky + On Demand http://tinyurl.com/8ockfrb 
Virgin Media tp://tinyurl.com/c69s73v
BT Vision http://tinyurl.com/dy745wp 

The on demand content is fulfilled by the main UK broadcasters, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. This is a good selection, as it is the same content that aired during the past seven days, in some cases.

All of these content providers, place commercials within the on demand content except the BBC. So the service may be free, but we must sit through the minute or so commercial block, which we cannot skip unlike the PVR.

I was very interested to read Vikas Bajaj's piece in the NY Times over the weekendhttp://tinyurl.com/cgy3jqa on the American market and the current state of "Cutting the Cord", well worth a read.

Speaking at a gathering of digital advertisers in New York City this month, Eric Schmidt refused to forecast when internet video would displace television, instead declaring: "That's already happened." 

"It's not a replacement for something that we know," he added. "It's a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms." 

Robert Kyncl, YouTube's global head of content stated, 

"I thought that YouTube was like TV, but it isn't. I was wrong," "TV is one-way. YouTube talks back." 

A year ago, YouTube announced its intention to 'reinvent television' by funding the launch of more than 100 channels from well-known media brands and Hollywood personalities. 

More 18 to 34-year-olds watch YouTube than any cable network in the United States, and the site's popular system of user comments and thumbs up/thumbs down voting on videos has become an industry standard for video sites and newer ventures such as social news site Reddit. 

Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10033473/Eric-Schmidt-television-is-already-over.html

BBC Fails to complete Tape Less Enviroment

Big news today, 

The BBC have ditched the technology project to digitize all content, including archives and become a completely tape less environment.They have already spent, allegedly, £98 million on this project and still have not completed it and are now admitting that this project has gone wrong. So bad in fact that the BBC trust has appointed PriceWaterhouseCoopers to investigate where the project went wrong.

I have got to ask the question, do they know what they are doing ?? The people that bought us the iPlayer, the most avidly used VOD in the UK, with more than 2.3 billion programme requests in 2012 alone. Yet they spend £98 million and fail on trying to make a tape less environment. 

It is embarrassing, major issues became apparent when the BBC covered the passing of the former British Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher. It is reported that BBC news staff could not retrieve content from the archives in the new broadcast facility in central London.

It gets worse when you read that this project was started or rather approved in 2008, technology supplier Siemens was handed the £79m contract without open competition.

Siemens parted company on this project by mutual agreement in  2009 after failing to deliver.

Today, 4 years on, CTO John Linwood as been suspended from his post.  Ironically after 4 years in that job

Read the whole story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/may/24/bbc-technology-project-digital-media-initiative?CMP=twt_gu