ActiveVideo Urges Network-Based Platform to Speed Adoption of Web Video on TV

The president and CEO of ActiveVideo Networks called on the media, entertainment and CE communities to agree on a single, unified platform for the delivery of Web video to the television. ActiveVideo’s Jeff Miller outlined how “Platform Chaos” – the fragmentation of countless video devices and technologies -- must be overcome in order to accelerate the rollout and monetization of compelling interactive and Web-to-TV services.

Encouraging all facets of the industry to “join the cloud,” Miller talked about how the scramble to develop competing, proprietary solutions has created confusion and complexity that impacts the ability of content developers and consumers to connect. Miller stressed that placing intelligence in the network cloud, instead of in the CE device or digital set-top box, would enable developers to write content once and deploy universally to any device, and would relieve consumers of the challenge of identifying, purchasing and integrating new equipment for their home theater systems.

According to Miller, adoption of a solution such as ActiveVideo’s CloudTV™ would provide a common platform that would lift restrictions on the number and types of applications available, as well as the ability to port content across multiple devices. In a cloud-based system, Web-based applications, social media, user interfaces and other content is processed in the network and streamed to any device.

For more information, visit www.activevideo.com.

The Latest OTT Opportunity: Connected TV

Of all the new Internet TV delivery options, the connected TV is especially interesting to service operators: It’s already front and center in the living room, there is perhaps no expensive STB required, it features an already integrated remote control and has the potential for high-quality presentation without distortion or noise from connecting cables.

On the other hand, today’s connected TVs are fundamentally constrained by proprietary interfaces, wholly proprietary aggregation portals and simplistic navigational schemes. Limited or no storage means streaming-only presentation of content.

Our current feeling is that the Internet-connected TVs are primarily an aspect of a features game in a highly competitive consumer electronics market and is one of the options least likely to be exploited for premium video delivery services. The more likely scenario will be facilitated via connected devices such as Blu-ray players game consoles and last but not least via STBs, although these may take on a new identities such as whole home DVRs, media gateways, etc.

It is possible that connectivity may be used to blend the TV and Web experiences together. Operators can choose to make this happen on a TV using overlay or screen sharing applications, such as calling up an actor’s Twitter feed while watching his performance.

But given that living room viewing is a shared experience, it may be more realistic to see TV supplemented by other more personal phone or pad devices with better user input capabilities to provide such interactivity. I can attest with my own family’s habits, that it has become more normal for viewers to watch TV while working on their connected laptop!

I presented last week at the TV 3.0 – Future of TV conference (co-located with @DisplayWeek) . I was surprised to hear that nearly 20% of TVs shipped in 2010 will be network‐enabled, which is projected to reach about 60% in 2013!

And we are experiencing some interest from CE manufacturers to embed software-based security technology directly into these next-generation TVs.

Nonetheless, I came back with the opinion that STBs are not going away anytime soon. The issue (and cost) of customer support needs to rest with the operator who ultimately owns the quality of experience.

Submitted from Steve Oetegenn, Verimatrix.

CONNECTIONS™ on the Web TV Market

CONNECTIONS™ sessions are always rich in data – and include expert analysis on the strategic implications for each market. For example, HDTV is a rapidly maturing market. The challenge for manufacturers now is to differentiate and add value to their displays. So the next stage of competition in this area will focus on connectivity and value-added applications.

At recent CES shows, there have been a wide variety of connected TVs on display. Panasonic is working with Google to bring some of its applications – including photos and YouTube – to the television. Samsung has developed an RSS “widget” offering, focusing on personalized information from USA TODAY. Sharp’s benefits include remote customer support. Sony has Internet television offerings that provide not only video but access to music via Slacker.

Every major manufacturer will likely implement at least some basic connectivity and provide some sort of Web or PC-linked application (such as photo viewing). In turn, aggregators like Netflix, CinemaNow, and Amazon will provide (or already do) CE manufacturers – including the display companies – with turnkey content services. There will be more announcements like the Intel and Yahoo Widget announcement, which will come to define the Web-enabled TV market. More new TVs will be capable of receiving third-party Web/widget applications, much like the iPhone, and consumers will be able to customize their TV experience for just the type of information they want – weather, traffic, sports scores, etc. Television providers (cable, satellite, IPTV) will follow suit, using their electronic program guides and advanced set-top boxes to provide a more customizable television experience.

If you build them, will consumers come?
Parks Associates’ Digital Media Evolution asked consumers to rate their interest in a number of home network and Web-enabled applications on a variety of consumer electronics devices, including digital cameras, televisions, portable multimedia players, mobile phones, digital photo frames, and Blu-ray players.

For “Connected TVs,” we asked consumers about their interest in various features, including watching Internet video on the television, watching stored video on a home PC, renting programs directly through the TV, and receiving customized information on the TV screen.

Consumers showed strong interest in some Web-connected features, particularly those that expand video-on-demand offerings for TV shows and movies. Consumer electronics companies – including manufacturers of displays, Blu-ray players, etc. – should aggressively pursue deals to provide streaming and downloadable content, which matches with the consumer desire to have access to a wide array of content, both user-paid and ad-supported, while not having to buy an additional black box.

This practice could steer consumer electronics companies away from a pure “sell-it-and-forget-it” practice and build new business models that center on recurring revenues, subscriptions, and value-added content and services applications. While this new business model will likely not create huge revenues for the device manufacturers, it is a compelling long-term business opportunity and a key point of differentiation in the short term.

Sizing the MarketManufacturers and their partners, in positioning for premium services, expect to generate only 200,000-300,000 unit sales in 2008 but anticipate millions of unit sales in future years. A Parks Associates forecast for Web-enabled TVs, focusing specifically on applications for watching Web video (CinemaNow, YouTube, etc.), is pretty conservative. Looking at total projected sales for HDTVs for the next few years (with sales at around 26-28 million units in the U.S. through 2012), the Web-enabled portion will remain relatively small – from 2% of total sales in 2009 to about 20% in 2013. Sessions at CONNECTIONS™ will address in detail the rationale for these forecasts plus the implications of these new business opportunities in Web TV.