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Why am I not yet sold on the promise of Social TV?

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Responses to “Why am I not yet sold on the promise of Social TV?”

1. Dan G 3.03.2010 um 9:21 pm

   I think that a lot of social media will be on the big screen, but much more as a PIP or side-bar than as an interruption. But then one has to ask if it’s better to have it on the (one) big screen or in the (several) laptops, netbooks, phones, etc. that people have in the living room at the time. If your children can chat on their social network and you can chat on yours… both of you on separate devices… neither of you interrupts the TV. That, to me, severely hampers the business case for putting it all on the TV at once.

2. Paul Johnson 5.03.2010 um 10:53 am

   Interesting comments Dan…thanks

   Don’t you think even a PIP or sidebar can be an interruption to a great show?

   In the context of having ‘social modes’, I am really interested in gaining some perspectives on which social media widgets, apps and engines are likely to be most suitable on the bigscreen versus which should be kept off the bigscreen – as I believe that this is what will ultimately drive the business case justifications…

   I have now doubt that Social TV will drive huge benefits and value to consumers, gatekeepers and advertisers alike – its just a question of what and how.

   So…

   …what apps, widgets and engines do you think will work on the bigscreen?

   …what apps, widgets and engines do you think will work best on a complimentary device?

3. Gianluigi Cuccureddu 5.03.2010 um 12:18 pm

   Hi Paul,

   I do think it depends on the multi-channel strategy and the -hypothesis- of what the ultimate touch points are (with regard to the device). Hypothesis, because it’s yet to be proven amongst the consumer base, that a TV Widget functions better as a touch point than a desktop app/widget.

   Everything that relates to the content is relevant. Think of the “widget” subtitles which already exists or the enabling of subtitles of a DVD.

   Non-intrusive apps that do enable multiple media consumption but doesn’t distract the user the actual TV content.
   On the other hand, the trend now is that TV is being consumed as a secondary medium -in the background-, if this will remain the case, focus can be put on widgets and reciprocality.

   I’m not sure what works well, would like to see some researches in this from existing services, for instance Yahoo TV Widgets.

4. Richard Kastelein 6.03.2010 um 12:11 pm

   I think the big question is, “Will it be a one screen or two screen experience?” or will it be both?

   I believe it will be and can be both.

   TV’s have gotten much thinner and larger over the past few years and will continue to do so. And data, video, image and advertising widgets will be and can be optional as you will be able to pop them in and out to the screen… so I think the horror of your screen being littered with clutter – like Times Square or Picadilly Circus is a scenario that can be avoided.

   If you are watching TV with your kids, and don’t want clutter on your wall screen of the future, you will likely push them to a two screen scenario with an iPad/iPhone like device…. and they will be able to call relevent data to their small screen while sharing the large screen experience.

   And there is technology being worked on that comes with ’social modes’ that can be controlled, depending upon what state of mind.

   Have you ever seen Project Natal from Microsoft? With OCR technology and voice recognition software that recommends and reacts – based on the tone of your voice can tell your mood and based on that, offer suggestions and interact using highly evolved Artificial Intelligence.

   Meet Milo. I saw this presentation at Picnic 2009 in Amsterdam.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68

   Is this part of the future of social TV? It could very well be and kudos to Peter Molyneaux and Lionshead Studios for conceptually taking the concept of TV to a whole other level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Molyneux Some people are horrified by this technology, but I feel it’s revolutionary and brings a whole other layer to the future of television.

   When I really question the future of Social TV – I really look right at home. My three young daughters, as they are growing older, are now showing a penchant more and more for the interactive computer experience rather than the passive TV experience. It appears that interacting with Dora on the computer is much more fun for them than sitting back and merely watching Dora on TV. The sheer volume of entertainment on Youtube, with it’s snippets and searchability satiates their ondemand wants.

   In five years, maybe ten at the most, they will laugh at the old days when they actually had to watch certain programs at certain times…

   On demand TV is just part of the great change we are going to see in the future… where media will be ubiquitous, and will no longer be the passive experience we now see today.

   I think it’s inevitable. Social Media is such a powerful force online, that’s there’s no stopping it’s migration to TV. Or really the convergence of the two lies in the future.

   TV Everywhere.

   Montetization? Content companies are now driven by control of Intellectual Property. And that has too and will change.

   Business models will change. Future tCommerce will be a paradigm shift for the TV industry. In the future, you might see a celebrity with a cool shirt that you like, you might be able to point at it with mobile device and you might be able to buy it. Advertisers will then likely work on affiliation models, rather than simply pay for ad space.

   So yes, I think affiliation models will rise – profit sharing rather than profit hoarding. The ability to shop on TV will be seamless and simple allowing for revenue sharing between the broadcasters and advertisers. Brands, developers and content creators will all share in the revenue models in the TV of the future.

   Already, new players in the social TV space are building API’s and SDK’s to allow developers to make the shift from iPhone and Facebook to new models on TV. Yahoo Connected has an Open API, Europe ‘s HBBTV will likely be Open Source software and even BBC’s Canvas in the UK is pushing towards open standards. Open IPTV is brilliant. http://www.openiptvforum.org/specifications.html

5. Gianluigi Cuccureddu 7.03.2010 um 9:10 pm

   To add my 2 cents on Richard’s comment:
   Shorter content will be increasing. “Snacking” content on Youtube, zapping to another piece of movie/serie and so on.
   Maybe this is due to the fragmentation of the content/Web forcing people behaving like this, OR, it’s a growing part of daily lives to consume as much different content as possible in order to be up to date on as much things, driven by Social Interaction.

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