HotHouse - Noise

April 19, 2007

ipTV and the death of couch potatoes as we know them

In control and on demandIf you're a digital immigrant you will have probably had a love affair with TV at some stage in your life. Whether you've been hooked on a soap, cop show, hospital drama, or a suspenseful thriller, you've probably put your life on hold and politely declined invitations so that you can get home to watch your favourite TV show.

But in today's on-demand world, we're losing the patience with having to watch a TV show (and its advertising) when the network deems it should be programmed. Just think about it, over the last couple of years, Channel 7 juggled 24's timeslot so haphazardly that I wouldn't be surprised to find that they ended up airing the show at 3:30am on a Monday morning before they finally dumped it. Same with The West Wing. When Channel 9 wasn't getting its numbers, the show was moved to some ungodly time spot before the ABC finally rescued it. Needless to say, it would take the most ardent devotion to remain hooked on these shows.

Digital natives simply haven't been conditioned to accept this and hence this generation is not hooked on conventional broadcast TV.

I like to think that ipTV is a little like subscribing to RSS feeds. It's all about taking control and choosing what we want to see, when we want to see it - not having to wait for content to be pushed to us or pushed at us.

Relevance is key
The ipTV advertising framework will take its lead from the web with relevancy the big key. Advertising will be targeted to individual set-top boxes with advertisers paying for the timeslot but with the ability to use different ads to target different users. This means that brands can deliver the most appropriate advertising message to each audience dynamic. For instance, if my user profile is set as a 48-year old male, married with three school-age kids, I might get an ad for a Toyota Kluger that focuses on safety and space. There may also been the option to subscribe to Kluger TV which features lifestyle content that reflects the life I lead. Meanwhile, next door, my environmentally aware neighbours get an ad for the Toyota Prius.

And then there's interaction
For marketers, ipTV promises to deliver the holy grail of advertising. Drawing on the targeted and highly measurable qualities of online advertising, coupled with the big brand experience of the TV commercial, and enhanced with interactivity and a two-way conversation.

This all boils down to the ability to target individual homes with personal advertising messages that are all sublimely measurable. And it's not just about 30 second spots, this revolution opens up branded channels and branded content opportunities like never before.

For instance personalised ad messages will be interactive. In which case the consumer could freeze the content that they were watching in order to able to find out more about the product being advertised – if it's a car, this may mean making a booking for a test drive at their local dealership. If it's a FMCG or retail brand, it means impulse shopping for books, music and much more to ordering a pizza to satisfy that craving.

But of course it's not just about impulse purchasing. Brands can open the conversation by using polling and voting mechanisms, and interactive recommendation tools that consumers can share with their nearest and dearest.

This personalised, tailored world is, as you imagine, going herald a new age of TV quality advertising that is fortified with online accountability and interactivity.

The Long Tail makes niche programming a reality
And when I say more channels. I really mean more channels. Because ipTV delivers to individuals – and only those channels that the individual wants, it means special interest programming finally becomes economical and therefore viable. So, if I'm a die-hard Tiddly Winks fanatic, the World Pairs 32 in March this year would have made compulsive and compelling viewing for me and the personalised, dynamic ad insertions may have proven irresistible.

Of course ipTV delivers all the things you associate with products like Foxtel digital such as viewing sporting events with a choice of camera angles and screen in screen viewing as well as access to information related to the event you're viewing like stats and information on the players on miniature screens so that you don't miss out on the action in the event you're viewing. If nothing else, it certainly gives you something to do while you're watching the cricket.

Of course if you weren't able to view the whole day's play, you'll be able to time-shift the content – allowing you to watch what you want, when you want it.

And when the action on the field gets really boring, you can view photos or home videos from your PC right onto the TV and message your friends while you're at it.

ipTV wave Microsoft will be offering an Xbox 360 game console that doubles as a set-top box for its ipTV service. And just last month Apple Australia launched its Apple TV onto the Australian market and this time, as Apple says, the "revolution will be televised".

Changing the way you watch digital media
The sleek (would it be anything else) Apple TV box connects to your widescreen TV and wirelessly syncs to your iTunes library allowing you to view music videos and podcasts, YouTube videos, your digital photos as well as movie trailers - all pumped out on your TV, all in fabulous high definition.

Movie trailers – what about movies?
Here's the thing. In Australia, Apple has yet to do the deals with the television networks and movie distributors to allow them to sell mainstream video content on iTunes. So for customers in this country, the Apple TV is simply a cool device that offers you an effortless way to transfer your own digital content from the computer and onto your TV. So you can listen to music and view your holiday snaps in a widescreen slideshow extravaganza. But it's not ipTV. Not yet, anyway.

So the ipTV wave is not going to become anything like Apple's entertainment tsunami in Australia until content becomes available.

But as to whether it's Apple or Microsoft that wins the battle for your lounge rooms, for the time being anyway, it's purely academic. Whether ipTV becomes a reality in this country is in the hands of the telcos and whether they finally decide to deliver a true broadband service.

Listen to the HotHouse podcast of Simon in conversation with Brad Howarth discussing ipTV.

Posted By Victoria Kerr @ 1:41 PM Permalink / Comments (0) / Trackbacks (0)

Technorati Tags: HotHouse | Article | ipTV |