Thought I would share my winning pitch for The Netherlands Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions 2010 Tech Visionary for futurist views on Social TV and Media Convergence.

I wrote it on the train on the way down… I actually forgot half of it and kind of made it all up again once I got up there. I had two minutes to pitch… in front of about 200 of Holland’s tech community who voted by SMS.

My name is Richard Kastelein, I am a Canadian of Dutch heritage and am currently working a Chief Strategy officer for a startup in Groningen called Worldticketshop as well as building a creative and innovation agency called Agora Media Group in London.

How many of you have young children out there?

In five years, your children and mine will laugh at the old days when certain programs were available only at certain times. We will too.

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.

It’s called TV Everywhere.

I am going to go through four quick points.

1.       Production. The rise of User Generated Content has already and greatly shifted the Internet landscape and will do the same for TV. Merged media will be everywhere, video, audio, photography, 3D and more.

2.       Delivery – Entertainment will be available in the cloud – everywhere, on demand and available to anyone, anywhere.

3.       Consumption – This will be profoundly changed due to the future convergence of the Web and TV, where web widgets become part of the TV experience and viewing culture will be radically changed due to the inclusion of recommendation engines which will offer true reflection of consumer needs and wants.

4.        And lastly, Monetization. Last year, it was noted by MTV here that content companies are now driven by control of Intellectual Property. And that has too and will change. Business models will change. I call it tCommerce and it will also be a paradigm shift for the TV industry. Last year MTV also mentioned that new business models will need to come into place. We feel that 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.

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 as it’s based largely on Open IPTV and even BBC’s Canvas in the UK is pushing towards open standards.

I will wrap this up by saying that it’s my feeling that this could be the next ‘bubble’ in the market as TV is going be decentralized and it will, in the future, be owned by the audience in many ways. Unlike TV today…. Such as in the USA, where the networks are publically owned and contracting – with no sign of growth in the future.

Thanks for your time and feel free to contact me at the borrel if you are interested in chatting further. We are working on building products for this new space.

We are looking to take Social Gaming to TV via Social TV platform – think Mafia Wars, Farm Town, and even Second Life on TV.
We have developed and successfully broadcast Social TV in Europe bypassing the remote using telephony 2.0 (mobile and landline), advanced IVR and business logic servers, realtime 3D along with web integration.

We need partners. We need financial backing to redevelop the project.

… where viewers can create a virtual character, pilot it in the TV environment, meet, compete, play and even talk to other viewers/competitors via phone.

What is the Cross Media Social Platform (CMSP)?

The TV market is ‘on the move’ – competition is growing and digital channels via ISP’s and IPTV providers are now crashing through what was once the walled fortress of broadcast television. Interactive content and social media are the buzz and broadcasters are looking for both innovation and revenue generation models that fall outside of the traditional advertising box of the past. And the need for all types of content is growing exponentially, of which one is created by users themselves.

The Cross Media Social Platform is a unique product that not only offers a business model that encompasses current and widely spread advertising revenue – it also has added value by offering broadcasters the opportunity to earn money via telephony (Premium Rate Numbers and Premium SMS) via freemium modelling, as well as web and phone subscription models – where users can augment their profiles and characters on the web for TV and the web.

We created an interactive, virtual world on both television and the Internet that envelops social networking, community, user generated content, competition, and entertainment. And we are interested in developing this further with principles who were involved in the previous project. And it works on both standard broadcast or terrestrial TV as well as IPTV, Satellite, Cable etc.

See video of work we did in the past at Youtube

Visuals of the Cross Media Social Platform (CMSP)

Below you will find a basic CMSP architecture demo and a couple of screenshots.

It evens goes further, technology developments are evolving, partners have released an API enabling developers to create unified communications (telephone, cellular text message, instant message (Jabber, AIM, Yahoo, MSN) applications using traditional document-based web development flow. This sort of technology can be implemented in the Cross Media Social Platform, adapting to the needs and ways of nowadays communication.

Why Agora Media?

We have the experience and know-how, without having to invent the wheel and exploit this competitive advantage, we can respond very fast and accurate to the concretizing needs of the Social TV/Social Media/converging Media community and industry! We have a vast network of 2.0, cross media and technology pioneers, working closely with them to stay on top of trends and developments which will enhance the Cross Media Social Platform.

Why now?

The interest in Social TV is rising, the television landscape is changing, permanently. Media consumption is converging and increasingly socializing. More and more experiments, products and services are initiated and developed to meet these changes. Being on top of these trends and offering new digital cross media experiences to your target audiences and putting you permanently on the map!

Feel free to contact us if interested or wish to receive more information.

That is what Chitter.tv is offering people. Right now it’s in beta, but you can sign in with your Twitter account.
Watching TV becomes interactive, from a passive modus, you are now able to interact in real-time with other watchers who happen to consume the same content at that time.

Right now TV and Twitter are two major activities, TV is being consumed more and more in combination with other activities like Internet, radio and so on. Combining these two is bound to trigger interest from users, companies and the market in understanding the converging phenomenon and how users will intertwine the two.
At this point, some of the channels which can be watched on Chitter.tv are: MTV, Fox News, Sky News, Bloomberg, but also channels like Classic.fm TV, RaiNews, RTL-Z, Humor-TV and AT5.
Depending on your interest it certainly has its charms to engage with current watchers and talk about the live seen content, it feels odd, but that has to grow on you.

This is just a beta version, but many features can be thought up which will add value and experience to Chitter.tv, probably initial experiences and opinions are awaited till further development is undertaken.
It’s not possible to scroll down the list of tweets or directly interact with another user. From a commercial point of view all kinds of interactive commerce can be implemented to convert impulses and enthausiasts.

Interesting to see where this will head to, the perceived risk is low, so many will at least test this, how many will experience this as a added-value service and convergence?
What’s your opinion?

This is great news for the industry, a technology and platform that services online media content to a large amount of devices from any manufacturer.
Another step towards media and device convergence!

Press release taken from the DivX website:

DivX Launches New Internet TV Platform to Redefine the Future of Entertainment
DivX TV(TM) Receives Widespread Support from Consumer Electronics Companies and Content Providers

LAS VEGAS, Jan 06, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), a leading digital media company, today announced the launch of DivX TV(TM), a comprehensive embedded Internet TV platform that provides access to a diverse line-up of online media content streamed directly to any connected device from any manufacturer.

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Informitv – a convergent communications consultancy agency – is one of our regularly read websites, an authority when it comes to television and its convergence. Their publication Connected Vision is well worth the read as well, which you can download here.

Dr William Cooper of Informitv has given 20 predictions for the next decade on television and its developments:
(Visit their website to read the additional information per prediction)

1. Television will be less dominant.
2. Fewer television channels will survive.
3. Global communities will dominate media.
4. Audiovisual communication will become personal.
5. Most viewing will be on personal screens. .
6. Mobile video will be delivered over data networks.
7. Displays will be network connected.
8. Displays will become resolution independent.
9. High definition will be standard.
10. Fidelity of reproduction will improve.
11. 3D will be a limited success.
12. Network distribution will become more efficient.
13. Fibre-optic networks will reach the home.
14. Broadband will become a utility.
15. Home networks will become ubiquitous.
16. Massive data storage will be cheap as chips.
17. Physical media distribution will decline.
18. Global releases will reduce piracy.
19. Copyright protection will be invisible.
20. People will pay to avoid adverts.

When reading through the 20 points, an apprehension is becoming clear that this industry is at the dawn of thorough transformation, melting with other media into a morphed new industry that has much more opportunities for that what it sustains: Content.
Summarized can be said that important developments are the fact that every screen can be used to consume content (whatever screen works to service what a user wants, when he wants it and where he wants it), television -as we know it- will decrease in importancy and hardware/underlaying technologies will advance the ‘front-end’ developments.

An exciting decade is awaiting us full of media convergence and evolutions. What are your most important conclusions or predictions?

If you’re handy it was a piece of cake, but for most, connecting your PC or laptop with your TV, is a challenge.
The company Dutchtronics has introduced a solution (PConTV) to make it easier for people to experience the Web/computer on your TV and make advantage of the bigger TV screen.

The system comes along with a wireless keyboard which makes it easier and more importantly, uses the same control as the computer. This lowers the perceived risk and barriers for potential interested customers that are willing to give this convergent experience a try.

Taken from Spreekbuis.nl

What do you think of this innovation? Does it suit the needs of people and solves a usage dilemma?
Will these kind of devices be an intermediate step towards a fully Social TV and Television 2.0 experience or is this to suffice the needs of another segment in the market?

Interesting video on the new Boxee beta release!

An interesting remark during the video was that Boxee is Open Source and opens up its platform for developers through their API’s.
This is great from a business point of perspective and for a market as Social TV, looking forward what third party developments will be.

What is your opinion on the opportunities of Boxee?

Below you’ll find the video, an image and information on the Boxee Box.
For further information check out the website of Boxee.

Is this the prelude of an intimate relationship between the mobile device and the morphing television?
i.TV enables users to use their iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control for televisions and other devices.

For me, two points stand out which makes this a good example of convergence and a step forward into a more interactive television experience.
First the mobile device as a remote control. It’s a quest in finding a good remote control or piece of device which will enable an easy usage of television 2.0, the iPhone could be well one of the devices which creates this possibility, people are already used to the device, the interface works well, plus that the mobile device is already carried all day through, which is an advantage because it will add new dimensions to the new way of experiencing television in this hyperconnective society.
Secondly, i.TV offers a range of features which allows people to share, recommend and write reviews on television shows. This is the Social TV component pur sang which adds the social and interactive component to watching TV.

i.TV Press release:
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Press release taken from ClipSynch website:

- TV and Movie Content Providers can make Shows More “Social” with Embedded Interactive Features
- Consumers can Watch Content While Interacting with Friends – Where Ever They’re Watching
- Social TV Platform Easily Handles Solo Viewing, Private or Large-Scale Events Drawing Thousands of Viewers

San Francisco, CA – December 7, 2009 — ClipSync, developers of the first true “Social TV” platform that makes TV viewing highly interactive, announced today that it has partnered with Boxee, the easiest way to enjoy entertainment from the Internet or computer on a TV to allow the seamless integration of ClipSync’s Social TV features to all Boxee video content partners. The partnership is intended to further augment Boxee’s social offering for users.

ClipSync’s interactive Social TV platform offers Boxee TV and movie content partners “plug and play” social features that offer a unique and creative way to keep viewers fully engaged – which lengthens viewing time, drives new traffic, and retains viewership. The ClipSync Social TV platform is designed to easily “snap on” to a media company’s current Boxee application, allowing them to maintain control of their video stream while enhancing the traditional viewing experience. Viewers will be able to interact with others at the exact time they’re watching content on Boxee, including playing trivia and chatting with their network of friends. Additionally, viewers can leave behind comments synchronized to the content for the next viewer to see and react to at the exact same moment.
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And the answer is: Attention.

Conventional television business models will disappear or diminish when -amongst others- IPTV will be adopted.
Here lies the cause and effect when relating to the challenge, content providers first need to find ways to attract people, get their attention and retain their attention and from there on the business model can be reshaped to meet the new characteristics.
The Web is already undergoing this transformation when it comes to monetizing attention, quality content means spent-time and the fate of Television 2.0 doesn’t really differ from that point of perspective.
TV 2.0 has an advantage, it can make use of the multi-faceted of user media-usage. Convergence and integration of television, Web and social aspects could bring in new experiences which will grasp the attention of the digital user.

The two most important characteristics which will challenge Attention are first of all the openness of the television landscape, which is expressed through the amount of channels, be it vertical channels or channels created by the consumers themselves, it becomes a real-time battle to get attention, producer and consumer lines fade, just like it did with Social Media and new power understandings will arise as time passes by.
Secondly, the extent to which consumers control is the effect of the openness of the future television landscape, just like the Web, users decide what how to consume their time.
Attention is time and time is money (revenue). Where advertising revenue is earned in our current television business model, consumers can bypass advertising which will create a downward spiral for the advertisers and content providers.
Current interests are simply too vast to open up and allow an open TV platform, therefore companies create so-called walled gardens to try not losing all the control and therefore to keep its revenue streams established.
This won’t last forever, even though TV set producers -from the hardware point of view, are coming up with their own standard for lack of any wide accepted standard- could slow down market development.

It does sound like a chicken-egg issue, what do you think comes first?