Please add your company in our directory if you are in the business. It’s free… Or even if you have relevant experience and ‘want’ to offer your portfolio of skills to the industry. If you want to write with us, contact us via the site. Share the knowledge. Brand yourself or your company.

AppMarket.tv Manifesto

We composed a Manifesto (click to read complete Manifesto), explaining our vision on the evolution of the industry.

Manifesto
Appmarket.tv is the Internet’s first portal dedicated to application and middleware development communities in the Social TV and Connected TV landscape.

We support open API’s, SDK’s, WDK’s and our own roots lie in Open Source communities. It’s our opinion that completely closed, proprietary development in this emerging space will fail and models that are built on more systems similar to the Iphone App and Facebook Application worlds will do well. Truly open source software like Google’s Android will likely be the winners.

Revenue sharing between corporate entities and small businesses around and a prevalence of freemium models will appear and flourish. And a new word will enter tech lexicon. tCommerce.

Future advertising models on TV will be dependent on interaction and creative ways to bring brands to viewers as future audiences will no longer accept ‘broken’ TV… or TV with a slew of interruptions. Video On Demand (VOD) and TV in the Cloud, ubiquitous and everywhere, will change that. I expect my daughters, in the future, to think it was novel how they used to have to watch certain programs at certain times when they were young.

The TV industry, like many other’s affected by disruptive and game changing technologies, is a mess. There are so many players and so many technologies right now which is both good and bad. Darwinists say the best will survive, but in the meantime… directional decisions we make now can really affect our futures. There are a lot of choices for developers, investors and consumers. And we want to help sort it out by providing a solid directory, consolidating events worldwide to help us all plan better, and even meet!

Collective Intelligence
We can’t build AppMarket.tv up without the collective intelligence on this industry which is out there, fragmented amongst many industry leaders, technologists, evangelists etc.

We like to write about the industry – and we welcome others who want to reach players in this targeted niche by contributing to Appmarket.tv with ideas, reviews and new analysis.

We can’t pay, but we can plug you.

This is, essentially, a labour of love. We love new, creative technology and innovation that empowers people and creates a better, more fruitful, active-rather-than-passive TV experience.

Contact us if you’re interested in contributing your expertise and knowledge, brand yourself or your company!

We invite you as well to submit your company in the AppMarket.tv Directory.

The Directory is divided in Connected TV, iPad/Mobile, Social TV, tCommerce Specialists, TV Widget & App Developers sections, select the best category which fits your company and add your listing.

Being Open Source advocates at heart, learning and sharing together will only improve the new industry and make it easier for all of us aiming to participate in it!

Related posts:

1. AppMarket.tv & Agora Media Group – Blog update
2. TV apps, widgets and two-screen solutions: Augmenting TV experiencies
3. Two Minute Pitch that Helped Push Social TV to the Forefront

Related posts:

1. Two Minute Pitch that Helped Push Social TV to the Forefront
2. A bright future for IPTV – Television 2.0
3. Google Aims at the TV market – Will they Succeed? Yes, and Here’s Why

This article first appeared at Atlantic Free Press.

Ever since the New York Times launched word that Google TV will likely become a reality last week, the concept of convergent media has suddenly become a mass meme rather than a tech meme… and probably done more good for IPTV and the blossoming worlds of Social TV, tCommerce, TV Widgets, TV recommendation engines, TV Everywhere, TV 2.0, and opt-in TV advertising than any single event in this emerging landscape.

The TV deal between Google, Sony, Logitech and Intel which flooded the media zeitgeist last week was a perfect riposte to the other news that Facebook topped Google for the week ending March 13th with 7.07 per cent of all Internet traffic for that week, while Google.com got 7.03 per cent.

Sony looks set to rollout new Intel ‘chipped’ TV sets, while Google will make available set-top-boxes (STB)’s – and both will be powered by tiny keyboards built by Logitech. Makes perfect sense.

And what punter would not want an affordable Google Set Top Box (STB) with new cool Logitech remote that does stuff, so he can search his TV and do other cool things? Or just buy a new Sony LCD wall screen that does the same thing – sans the STB?

Interesting to see how it all plays against the Yahoo Connected TV – which already has its feed firmly entrenched in the space and has some cross over with their partners, including Sony and Intel. Most people still don’t even know about Yahoo TV, nor ever heard about. Including most developers I meet at the many events I attend each year in Europe. You can bet, with all the coverage last week, they know about the Google TV foray.

Probably the most exciting news for me is the fact that the New TV platform will be based on Android, and will remain Open Source. That means all code will be transparent, available and open to change and suggestions and managed by a core team… unlike the iPhone,  Facebook and Yahoo Connected TV developer communities  which offer a slice of code to allow developers to develop applications via Application Programming Interface (API)’s or Software Development Kit (SDK)’s.  Bear in mind, any external or 3rd party development has to meet stringent standards for the TV market.

There are some rumours that the platform may have Chrome browser capabilities and even rumblings of a deal with Hulu in the future.

And the major global TV networks and media centers of power? Look for their already crumbling influence to be even more diminished. TV, which has been the mainstream media’s core tool to for swaying us to one or another of their movies, music stars, books, politicians, brands and whatever they get paid to make us like, will be in decline. And, to perhaps the chagrin of a few parties, the TV will continue to democratize and will follow the web with many to many rather than one to many. Publically owned broadcasters listed on the NYSE are in, what seems to be, a never-ending spiral of contraction, which is disastrous for shareholders.

Google is obviously more known for its search technology than their weaker portfolio of social media products (Wave, Orkut, and more recently Buzz in Gmail), and undoubtedly, most consumers that are now mulling over the idea of Google on their TV are enticed by the idea that perhaps it will become much easier to wade through the ever-increasing number of channels available … perhaps Google will offer a search engine like they do online? Or maybe even a better organizational structure –  a directory of sorts?

Searchable TV is why Google is currently testing its technology with Dish Networks… and probably why they will be the future of the Electronic Program Guide (EPG).

Some analysts are skeptical about Google’s latest plan to expand; noting their previous attempts to enter the TV, radio, and print advertising markets were all dismal failures.

However, I disagree. And here’s why.

Try out  another scenario… one which no one else could do in this space.  No one.

Google is currently allowing advertisers to use their innovative and very fresh Google TV advertising platform to launch TV ad spots in US cable markets.

Google TV Ads is an online marketplace that makes it easy for anyone to buy and measure national cable television advertising. Using the familiar Adwords interface, you can launch a television campaign in minutes

This means, in Google’s new ubiquitous, massive TV realm, I could simply buy time slots or even permanent space on for programs or channels in the future of Google TV.

Why two? Time slots for more linear TV experiences such as a classic 30 second spot, using an ‘old school’ non- elective, interruptive, advertising model.

Or.

I could buy elective (opt in and opt out) landscape around particular program for TV Widgets for shows or even entire channels.  It might be a custom widget built in Android or could even be some kind of Chrome extension. It could be Contextual Advertising based on the show’s content, it could be Behavioral Targeting based on the viewer’s preferences and habits, it could be Location Based Advertising (LBA), based on the viewer’s lat and long via IP, or it could be Experience Marketing (full fledged TV experiences).

I think this is what Google has in mind. And I for one… think it’s going to work.

Richard Kastelein is the Winner of 2010 Deloitte Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions for Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands for his futurist views on Social TV and Media Convergence (Tech Visionary) and is a Guest Lecturer at Hanze University in Groningen, Netherlands. He’s a Canadian C-level strategist with start-ups on a number of continents and has strong skills in Social Media and Social TV Architecture and Analysis – Community building using Open Source technology. New Media publishing and on-demand technologies. Open Source Evangelist. Innovator. Creative. See more on Linkedin.

Related posts:

1. Will Google be able to open up the TV industry? – Introducing Google TV
2. Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” – the European Industry Standard for Social TV? Or Will it go Global?
3. People of Lava Erupt with the world’s first Android TV

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.

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1. Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” – the European Industry Standard for Social TV? Or Will it go Global?
2. Agora Media will pitch at the Deloitte Fast50 TMT !
3. Agora Media’s AppMarket.tv – first online portal around TV applications and widgets

Whilst the mainstream media players are quietly pushing their technology and innovation teams to the maximum across the world in a race to marry Social Media and TV, most of the public remains oblivious and left out of the loop, mainly due to offerings being in Proof of Concept (POC) stage or not even… and still on the chalkboard.

However, one sector, the Hotel and Hospitality is one of the earlier beneficiaries from the advances that have been made provision and delivery of TV and other services over Internet Protocol will likely be early corporate adopters of Social TV now that network technologies that include the provision of Ethernet networks in hotels is now a standard requirement. Add a wireless keyboard and an advanced TV remote, you can do pretty much anything.

And buzz is starting to generate in this sector as hotels are coming out of a slump and are looking for new ways to attract the web and media savvy 25-45 year old, Gen X and Y generations who are a lucrative target group in many of their marketing strategies. Social TV in a hotel would certainly be an historical PR victory for any marketing team.

IPTV distribution system in hotels is pretty straight forward… providing high quality, full screen digital TV over an Ethernet network using an existing IP network. Not only can digital satellite and terrestrial channels can be broadcast directly to TV’s anywhere in a hotel – but now there’s the opportunity to implement Social TV as well.

We live in a networked society, and our contact list, for most of us who will never see a cradle to grave job, is paramount. Imagine if you could not only sleep in a hotel, but also create a profile in the social TV network and then find others in similar business paths, or potential new partners right in the hotel… whom you could have lunch with or meet up in a pub. Or imagine you could organize short seminars, get people to sign up and do mini ‘unconferences’ or conferences with others whose businesses can converge with you own.

This is great, not only for the guests, but also for the hotel. They will not only be able to offer better service to their clients, but also be able to come to understand their own demographics more… with a Social TV Facebook social media scenario or clone, there’s plenty of data to be shared to everyone, including the hotel… giving them more opportunity to build better services.

Want to book a restaurant? Do it on the TV. Add it to your bill in the Hotel’s Property Management Software (PMS) program and don’t worry about pulling out a credit card. Feel like going to a concert or sporting event while you are in town? Click or type and buy.

Want to download an iPhone or mobile map application with directions from anywhere back to the hotel and listings of all the offerings of the city you are visiting? Plug your PDA or mobile phone into a USB port and suck it down. Need to book the conference room? Do it on the TV. Need to order some food? Pick up the TV remote and choose from room service or an array of restaurants that deliver in the area.

I could even see, in the foreseeable future, a Wii or Xbox network for gaming and sports in hotels. Why not? Feel like a bit of tennis but can’t book a court? Play your neighbor in room 602. Or shoot at the guys in rooms 562 and 788.

It’s only a matter of time before television becomes social in Hotels because it’s a perfect space for rolling out this technology.

I’d be intrigued by a system that automatically feeds me information about what is the most popular Video on Demand flick in the hotel… what others are watching and even reviews of the movies from other guests. A good recommendation engine built into a social TV hotel network could take care of a lot of things… including which restaurants are hot, bars are not, and where are the cool places that tourists don’t normally go.

Based on demographic data built up by the hotels social TV network, hotels could easily build up relationships with local strategic partners that are popular with their guests – offering discounts and other deals.

Want a taxi? Francois, the friendly, is the best in Brussels. Everyone raves about him on the network.

Or imagine you could reach out externally vis a vis the Hotel’s social TV network with Skype (VOIP and chat application) or Facebook and share with you family at home.

Watching television or listening to music together is often a shared activity with co-located family members and it is something to gather around. But can technology support this kind of experience while apart?

Yes. It’s possible. But I am not sure anyone in the industry is going in this direction yet.

When turning your social TV presence on in the hotel, you could also expose you current status on media usage to those at home and in the hotel (what music you are listening to, what program you are watching or game you are playing). Others could join in on the media session that you are currently running and can then scale to other levels of connection.

If the hotel industry manages to adhere to one or two IPTV system which includes social TV, preferably open source, or finds another way to standardize the product, then your social profile can even be ported to multiple hotels, saving you time and work plugging your details into every hotel you stay in.

Orca Interactive’s recent deal with SoftAtHome and Viaccess looks to be a strong contender for setting a social TV standard for the entire broadcast industry. Backed by France Telecom aka Orange, there’s over 200 million subscribers worldwide on the books and, though a minority are on the digital TV program, there’s still strong potential to set the bar in the European industry in particular.

Orca and Viaccess were smart to tie the knot with Softathome. Their Open API and plug in, plug out architecture promises to facilitate easy development and rapid scaling with an easy frame not only for third party developers to innovate and create revenue streams, but also the system is built to hitch up to almost any existing IPTV box or configuration. Their attitude is reminiscent of online open source leaders and if it plays out right, a rather large developer community will be built up fast – such as open source CMS Joomla has done over the past five years in the web world – to literally hundreds of thousands of builders and users driving innovation and knowledge sharing to build a better product for everyone.

Building blocks of the SoftAtHome Operating Platform are deployed today in more than 6 million Home Gateways and one million Set Top Boxes on the Orange network across Europe.

Putting it in hotels will be simple.

It looks like, on paper, Orca Interactive will go after the ISP’s and other IPTV suppliers and SoftAtHome will be targeting the home and possibly the hospitality and hotel markets.

SoftAtHome is a software company created by Orange, Thomson and Sagem Communications to deliver total convergence through a home operating platform for the home digital environment. It fosters a new ecosystem made up of service providers, 3rd party application developers, integrators and hardware vendors to accelerate the advent of the Digital Home. The company is headquartered in France with development and sales teams in France and Belgium. The Home Operating Platform enables Service Providers to deliver and monetize convergent applications for the digital home.

Orca Interactive (LSE-ORCA) is a leading provider of IPTV middleware and applications, empowering broadband operators and service providers to deliver broadcast TV, video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), home media and other compelling interactive services.

Viaccess SA, a France Telecom company, delivers solutions for digital pay television and secured content distribution. Its mission is the development, production and marketing of conditional access and DRM-based systems for all types of networks, broadcast (satellite, cable, terrestrial, MMDS, DVB-H, etc.) and broadband (DSL,FTTH, 3G, etc.). The constant growth of the pay TV market and digital content not only boosts direct to home distribution by satellite, cable, terrestrial and broadband over IP networks, but it also represents an enormous opportunity for the entertainment industry.

Richard Kastelein, a social media strategist and publisher, is CEO of new startup, Agora Media Group LLC (link), a new creative and innovation agency based in London, UK. He works with partners in the global travel industry and in emerging technology such as Social TV. Kastelein has been building online communities for over a decade and is an Open Source evangelist. He’s an adept team player – a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.

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2. Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” – the European Industry Standard for Social TV? Or Will it go Global?
3. Our Cross Media Social Platform -> Telephony 2.0 – TV 2.0 – Web – 3D

by Richard G. Kastelein

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until Social TV hits your screens.

And it’s not as far away as you think — not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. I recently attended the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, which bills itself as ’The content creation management delivery experience’. IBC2008 attracted 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. This year is expected to be bigger. Last year, I was part of a team exhibiting at MIPTV in Cannes, and was expecting something a bit similar… but this was almost all about hardware and software and less about the actual formats and programs. However, this was not a disappointment. For embedded in the show there were some jewels… which have profoundly altered my view of Social Media, the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.

One diamond-in-the-rough was Israeli-based Orca Interactive (link), who was pitching their Social TV product, which was still in Proof of Concept (POC) and this was their first showing to the general public. Orca specializes in IPTV middleware and applications. But they are aggressively moving into social TV. I spoke to CTO Ofer Weintraub (Ph.D.) on their strategy and the nuts and bolts of the technology on offer.

“This is truly social TV — there is nobody on the market with similar offerings,” said Weintraub. He added there is an SDK (Software Development Kit) available now for select partners, but they certainly would not rule out an open API in the future.

And there is tight integration at the database level with website Trustedopinion.com. I discussed the integration with TO founder and CEO Shahar Smirin — whose site topped a million users recently.

“It’s a natural fit,” said Smirin, who then went on to show his web product and how he’s built a viral invite and social ’consolidation’ framework focussed on opinion where one can pile everyone (all your friends, imported/invited) from most major social media sites and really focus on what your friends think about entertainment (mainly movies and theatre for now).

There is synergy between Orca and TO, but let’s now look at Orca. And why this marriage could take social media truly to the masses via IPTV.

One thing to note… Orca Interactive is owned by France Telecom and the 2008 M&A has positioned this duo to take Social TV to a mass global audience. The acquisition last year means that they are well positioned near the ear of one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and proprietor of the multinational Orange brand. Orange has a base of almost 200 million customers in 30 countries.

There’s nothing overly extraordinary in the makeup of the product — it’s nothing that Internet social media buffs have not seen before. But for TV users, this is going to revolutionize the way they watch TV… from being a passive, solitary, experience into an active, community one.

Here below, you can see recommendations from your friends on a particular movie or program. You can see related VOD products. You can rate it yourself, you can recommend it to a friend, you can see further information and you can send it as a gift to another person (purchased shows are good for 48 hours).

Here you can see your friends’ profiles, chat with them, send them a gift, see their recommends or send them a message.

Here you can send a gift to one or more friends.

And remember, this will all be integrated with your monthly billing. There will be no need for pulling out a credit card and security issues, there will be no need for digging deep to remember your Paypal password. No, the bill arrives like any other or is likely debited from your bank account automatically these days.

One can also set their mood — and then recommendations will be laid out according to complex algorithms and data mining based on your friends and your own data and viewing habits.
As Facebook revolutionized the way advertisers can niche-target their online demographics, Social TV will profoundly change the ad agencies and marketing departments will offer their wares in the television realm. Neilson ratings seem vague, less targetable and will likely become obsolete in TV 2.0.

Equally as interesting, but taking a different tack, is another gem called NDS (link), partially owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which has a reach to over 107 million pay-TV subscribers worldwide. Their latest product, Social TV was also in POC stage and looks a lot more like ’widgetized’ TV rather than a singular network.

Their model is quite different, but also appealing and unique for a number of reasons. One being it lends itself more to an iPhone app store scenario, with plans for an open API, which positions it well for social media developers and long tail monetization of the social TV landscape. But monetization or not will be decided by the operators not NDS. It also has impeccable design with a beautiful interface.

Obtaining details was a bit sketchy due to their PR person being in meetings and there was, understandably, some hesitancy in getting anyone to go on the record.

However, one of the demo managers did talk to me about some interesting API integration potential with Flickr for instance. If you see something interesting on TV you can be simply one click away from viewing images of that place, object or person. Conceivably the same could be done with the Youtube API in the video space or even Lastfm for music for that matter.

Social networking is also alive and well on Verizon’s FiOS TV and new features are being added such as Facebook and Twitter Widgets.  The new Widget Bazaar applications marketplace is located within FiOS TV’s Interactive Media Guide.

Verizon has worked with social media innovators Facebook Connect, Twitter, ESPN, Veoh, blip.tv, and Dailymotion to create a converged Internet-to-television experience that lets FiOS TV subscribers connect with others while watching TV, plus search and view a variety of online, personal PC-based videos on their television screens. Verizon also plans an open development platform (SDK) to permit developers to write interactive FiOS TV applications that will be available through the Widget Bazaar.

Customers are saying they love the new “social TV” Widgets, but they want more.  They want to send Tweets, not just look at them.  They want to create their own unique Facebook status messages.

According to Shawn Strickland, vice president, marketing for Verizon  Telecom, Verizon is working with some popular companies on the Web to create the foundation for a high-quality, engaging Internet-to-TV experience.

A recent report by The Nielsen Company found that there are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to social media sites. Also, the number of American users frequenting online video destinations has also increased by 339 percent since 2003.

Subscribers can Tweet about the TV show they are watching or search and follow their friends’ Tweets. Viewers can also update their Facebook status with their own messages. All of this is simply done via the FiOS TV remote control and an onscreen keyboard.

The Verizon At Home blog for the latest on the Widget Bazaar application marketplace.

A Belgian company called Zappware also launched social networking features for its “iView Core” services suite at IBC09. And they had a demo showing how the add-on allows the viewer to connect with friends and family to:

• see what they are watching on their TVs
• exchange favourite lists of TV programmes and VOD movies
• recommend TV programmes or VOD movies to one another
• send VOD movie gifts to their friends
• lock their TV screens onto one another and watch the same content

Koen Swings, CTO & Managing Partner Zappware:

“Social networking has been a buzz word in the past few years, in particular on the internet. With these extensions to our EPG, VOD and PVR products, we now extend social networking from the PC domain to the TV domain, because we are convinced that there is no better environment for sharing TV experiences than the TV itself. In a world, in which people are continuously seeking to connect and in which consumers are willing to embrace new technologies that allow them to connect better and more often, these social networking features on TV will be highly appreciated by viewers. Operators that include these features in their iDTV offering, will be able to offer their subscribers a cross-platform social networking experience, hence adding value to their triple or quadruple play offer and resulting in increased subscriber loyalty.”

So at the end of the day, this is a win, win, win for all — TV stations get better data on their viewers and offer convergence with web ideas and sites, viewers get interactive community-oriented, social television and can make interesting viewing choices based on mood and network of friends, web-based community and social media sites can make more headway into IPTV and broadcast TV, still the Tour de Force of media, and entrepreneurs and developers find a new medium to develop and monetize via new, open-source-philosophy-driven API and SDK environs.

Richard Kastelein, a social media strategist and publisher, is CEO of new startup, Agora Media Group LLC (link), a new creative and innovation agency based in London, UK. Kastelein has been building online communities for over a decade and is an Open Source evangelist. He’s an adept team player – a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.

Related posts:

1. Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” – the European Industry Standard for Social TV? Or Will it go Global?
2. Social TV and the Hotel Industry – A Marriage Made in Heaven?
3. Social TV – The Emergence of New TV 2.0 ecosystem

As far as I can see, there’s a discrepancy though between demand and supply? I’ve scanned the social sphere but from the users’ point of view, I’m not seeing many conversations, hype, interest and so on.

Am I wrong? If not, due to what is it being caused?

Discuss as well via Google Wave

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The Mobile DTV Standard are technical specifications which enable broadcasters to offer new services to mobile and other handheld devices making use of their digital television transmissions (DTV).

Indeed a milestone in the evolution and convergence of digital television. Broadcasters will have a wider range of devices to their disposal to offer existing -but more important- new services to their customers.

New business models arising from the Mobile DTV standard, will revolve around the evolution of Social TV and its convergence. The Mobile DTV Standard enables the possibility of interactive television services which will mix television, mobile and Internet to create new content services/applications and evolve transactional television to the next level. The Standard utilizes the Internet Protocol which increases the role of terrestial broadcasting even more.

The location characterstic of mobile devices, in combination with the increasing centralized role it plays and the mobility of the modern human will prelude a further democratization of television, where smaller/local broadcasters can take their chance to break through to wider audiences without the conventional television business model and its specifications.

As quoted from the press release:

“This milestone ushers in the new era of digital television broadcasting, giving local TV stations and networks new opportunities to reach viewers on the go,” said Paul Karpowicz, NAB Television Board Chairman and President of Meredith Broadcast Group. “This will introduce the power of local broadcasting to a new generation of viewers and provide all-important emergency alert, local news and other programming to consumers across the nation.”

It would be great if the Mobile DTV Standard will be incorporated in popular smartphones in the near future so that these early adopters have the chance to experience the next step in digital television and in this ‘role’ enhancing the applications to smoothen mass adoption.

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It’s only been a couple of weeks since the European Broadcasting Union demonstrated the potential of the HbbTV specification at IBC2009 in Amsterdam. But it won’t be long before Europeans start seeing the results – before Christmas according to some pundits. And once compatible devices are out in the market, they say the speed-to-market of applications developed for the platform will be incredibly short… as the industry looks to new models that embrace open API’s and SDK’s much like Apple has done with the iPhone and the Open Source movement online with enormous projects such as Sourceforge. With an HTML environment activated by a simple red button, in the same manner as a Web portal, the resulting content can be delivered over the IP stream.

How similar this will be to the UK’s Project Canvas initiative, announced in February 2009, remains to be seen – and it’s still not clear which platform will really rise to the top or if they will, in fact, reach compatibility at some point. But Project Canvas does bring together content from some of the UK’s biggest channels, including the BBC ITV, Channel 4 and Five. They are working on a more ambitious project to bring what is called catch-up TV and a variety of other programming and interactive services to television sets as soon as next year. But the move faces scrutiny as the BBC is a public broadcaster and particularly from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV which is the leading player in the satellite TV in the UK. In a speech last month, Sky heir apparent, James Murdoch abolutely slammed the BBC as an”Orwellian” institution—a provider of “state-sponsored” news with “chilling ambitions”.  There were whispers of an an even more hair-raising Microsoft and the Beeb hooking up at IBC, as the partnership was not ruled out the industry titans.

The great news is, for the web development community, HTML arriving on the TV scene will surely mean flocks of coders, designers and entreprenuers making a transition to the next stage in the evolution of TV 2.0 – which may very well provide the next tech bubble much needed in this recession.

And it looks to be levering as possibly not only an EU standard, but also a global one. Asian companies such as Korea’s Tru2way are already picking up on the new standard from the European ETSI and teaming up with global player Alticast. which offers HBBTV with PVR, a pluggable HTML Browser and Flash modules. And Korea’s Kaonmedia has hooked up with Founding member of the HBBTV initiative – ANT in their latest foray into the Asian Market. And Ant pitched a TV portal running a selection of HbbTV services based on the their Galio HbbTV Platform at IBC 2009.

During the IBC show in Amsterdam, Pleyo takes on Yahoo TV with its browser and widgets engine, which is compliant with W3C specifications and compatible with HbbTV (enabling access to interactive applications issued from broadcasting, Satellite or DTT, and broadband Internet networks), and a few other extensions for interactive TV based on the HbbTV standard. The Origyn Web Browser (OWB) is based on Apple’s Webkit and is more particularly designed for TV sets, TV decoders and other consumer electronic devices.

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV”, is THE major new pan-European initiative aimed at creating one standard for the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes providing terrestrial TV players a platform to keep up with IPTV development in terms of Web and TV convergence.

HbbTV

Developed by industry leaders to effectively manage the rapidly increasing amount of available content targeted at today’s end consumer, Hybrid Broadband‐Broadcast Services is based on elements of existing standards and web technologies including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB and W3C.

The new technology is also called hybrid television because it uses over-the-air transmission as well as broadband connections and can do a lot. It’s terrestrial TV’s play at competing with rapidly emerging IPTV services which are more supple when it comes to Web/TV convergence.

What’s most brilliant about this technology, from the perspective of social media and other developers coming from the web is… it will open up possibilities of using open API’s and SDK’s which will allow independent developers to create customized applications. Imagine watching a sports program that ended with a page of links to similar, archived programs, or to the Web sites of online retailers selling tickets to the events.

HbbTV products and services provide the consumer with a seamless entertainment experience with the combined richness of broadcast and broadband. This entertainment experience will be delivered with the simplicity of one remote control, on one screen and with the ease of use of television that we are used to. Through the adoption of HbbTV, consumers will be able to access new services from entertainment providers such as broadcasters, online providers and CE manufactures – including catch-up TV, video on demand (VoD), interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games and social networking as well as programme-related services such as digital text and EPGs.

So who else is tapping into HbbTV at the moment?

Within a few months, German viewers with specially equipped televisions will be able to watch public broadcasters’ Internet television services, which let users catch up on the shows of the previous week, whenever they choose, via their computers.

And the environment is less volatile in Germany, with the German-led hybrid TV project, which has support from several French broadcasters and a wide range of technology companies is seeking to create a set of hybrid TV standards for broadcasters and makers of TVs and set-top boxes. Broadcasters could then create and market their own hybrid services.

Luxembourg-based Inverto Digital Labs, which is now a supporting member of the new HbbTV standard, has stated that its retail high-definition hybrid set-top box platform Scena 6 will support it. They plan to enter the German market in Q1 2010 and will support a CE-HTML browser from French firm Pleyo, which is working together with Inverto to launch a rich selection of Web-based widgets on the box, such as news feeds, mailboxes, weather updates, Twitter, stocks and games. The platform will also offer a variety of hybrid applications such as ARD’s catch-up service for the ‘Tagesschau’ newscasts, access to ZDF’s ‘Mediathek’ library with hundreds of on-demand programmes, and access to RTL’s super-text service, which also combines streaming clips on-demand.

From the hardware side, Global company, STM Electronics, also recently announced they completed a Proof of Concept (POC) next-generation Set-Top Box (STB) solution at IBC 2009, capable of receiving interactive digital television services via broadcast or broadband Internet connections.

In the USA, there are only about 10 million Americans accessing Internet-delivered content on their TVs today, so who will be the one to bring it mainstream? Who knows… there seems to be no movement to a single standard and it looks like a race-off to see who will dominate the landscape.

Terrestrial, cable, satellite and IPTV providers are all innovating in a hurry to fend off web-based TV superstars such as Hulu before they proliferate. And Google with their Youtube seem to be nowhere in the picture, content to let others get in the early fray and perhaps step in later with a loud thump.

Yahoo Connected TV is a potential candidate and is driving hard and taking a hardware approach to widgetize TV via the next generation of TV’s themselves. It was only a month ago that Yahoo! and Intel announced the Widget Channel, the first in a series of initiatives that will bring what Yahoo! calls the “Cinematic Internet” even closer to living rooms across America. But there are plenty of questions which remain about how the service will operate and how successful it will be in reaching consumers.

However, the company managed to convince a number of consumer electronics heavyweights to include the widget service in their future products, announcing partnerships with companies including Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc and Sony Corp. The service will be included in TVs being shipped in North America and to 10 countries in Europe.

And Verizon Communications has integrated special widget versions of Facebook and Twitter with its FiOS TV (fiberoptic) offering. The company has joined hands with social media innovators like Facebook Connect, Twitter, ESPN, Veoh, blip.tv, and Dailymotion to offer users a fresh Web experience. The services will allow FiOS TV subscribers to connect with others while they watch TV. They can also search and view a variety of online, personal PC-based videos on their television screens simultaneously.

Yahoo! TV Widgets – Interactive TV and Intel CE 3100 Demo

The behemoth in the USA will likely be Adobe’s new Open Screen Project… and they have teamed up with the likes of the BBC, Cisco, Comcast, HTC, Intel, LG Electronics, Marvell, Motorola, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, Nokia, OpenTV, Palm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, The New York Times, Toshiba, and Verizon Wireless partnering to use the Flash and eventually the Air Platforms to provide rich interactive experiences across computers, devices, and consumer electronics.

However, getting in as a development partner is another story and snagging a piece of the action with the US$10 million Open Screen Project Fund is likely not to be easy. Having said that, there are some inspiring examples at the site. It’s certainly not an Open Source project by any means.

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This work is a summary of “Innovation at the Edge: Social TV and Beyond,” by Natalie Klym and Marie Jose Montpetit, MIT Communications Futures Program, September 1, 2008, link to the original paper.

The transition is happening. Convergence is inevitable. At least I think so.

How much longer will it be (or can we handle) until we move from our passive, numbing, anti-social, traditional TV screens to a more connected and shared, interactive TV space with family, friends, and communities?

Not long. There’s too much of a need for this change.

A full 57 percent of US Internet users reported browsing the Internet and watching the TV simultaneously, according to Neilson Ratings (PDF). On average, Americans spent about 2 hours and 39 minutes per month doing these activities together, with almost a third of their Internet time being spent in front of the TV. “This simultaneous activity is one reason we see continued growth of both Internet and TV consumption,” wrote Nielsen.

What does that mean?

Are people really paying enough attention to both the Internet and the TV to be able to remember what they see? Probably not. But it can be easily deduced, they are yearning for some kind of union of the two mediums.

In the last few years, TV viewers have seen a rise of new systems for delivering TV content to audiences, including digital, IP, and wireless networks and these systems are brushing aside and are considered emerging alternatives to the traditional analogue platforms of Over-the-air programming, cable, and satellite. What are the implications of this new technology and how will this all play out in creating TV 2.0?

There is no certainty of course, who will be the social media superstar of TV 2.0… The Facebook or Twitter of TV, or if even that will occur in the TV space in the foreseeable future.  Convergence may just take the form of existing, popular social media sites will make their mark as leaders in the TV space.

The implications are enormous – not just in terms of the convergence of web based social media and TV, but also will likely revolutionise TV revenue models with the introduction of tCommerce, also known as tRetail and Transactional TV.

The most important thrust of these technological developments is the rapid increase and selection of end user devices that connect to these platforms—and each other—including set-top boxes, Digital Video Recorders, PCs, and portable media like mobile phones and PDAs.

These devices comprise a dynamic part of the value chain for all new TV systems. Devices integrate multiple content and value-added services and their respective value chains into the TV ecosystem, expanding its boundaries and creating new opportunities for both network operators and non-network players (3PD developers) to create and capture value while dramatically changing the TV experience for consumers and creating a long tail scenario, somewhat like iPhone has done for the mobile market with its App Store or other Open API scenarios on the web such as Facebook and Twitter.

Social TV is now looked as an emerging category of interactive television services.

Currently most Social TV applications are focussed on either integrating Internet widgets into the traditional viewing experience or creating new, TV and web-based, independent communities which centre on peer recommendations (what are my friends watching right now? what are their “favourites”?), the possibility of tCommerce, and chat, message and gift sending.

Due to the recent rise of web-based social networks, and the rise of community video sites online, such as Facebook and its many clones, the lack of similar offerings on TV has resulted in a massive shift from TV to PCs and even mobile and PDAs, where users can experience and share video and customize their user experience with items such as “widgets”.

Just as the VCR created a new retail channel for the TV, giving it its first non-broadcast function, the DVR and other emerging set-top-boxes, increasingly connected to the Internet, have also come to serve as an “inbound channel” for online services.

TiVo for example, one of the earliest players in this space and a is a pioneer of the digital video recorder (DVR) can be programmed remotely through Yahoo! TV, integrating Yahoo’s Web program listings into the system… but a more significant feature is its ability to connect and to select Web content sites such as YouTube… which can then be watched on TV. More recently, TiVo has integrated other Web-based media services like Amazon Unbox, Music Choice Videos and even Rhapsody’s music service.

Tivo’s Web video services are one solution to bridging the gap between online content and the TV but it’s not widely used in Europe and is relatively limited to the US market.  Though it is now available in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, and the UK – it has not been very successful in these markets. Europe in particular is flush with scores of competitors in the DVR market which makes any kind of consolidation or move to a general standard for social TV in this sector unlikely.

While the social element of TV is not new, the term social TV is relatively new and used to describe a new breed of TV services that integrate other communication services like voice, chat, context awareness,  peer ratings and integration with Social Media on the web, to support an active TV experience rather than a passive one.

Social TV stems from two trends that are linked closely to the TV experience… social interaction and personalization.

TV, once a social experience, akin too and not long after families’ gathered around the hearth (Marshall McLuhan), listening to the radio or talking, was transformed in the latter part of the last century to a solo and less group oriented experience as more families enjoyed more TV’s and different preferences split families up in their  own houses.  We have been living in an era of anti-social TV for decades.

But the shared TV experience is now returning, as social TV. And the typical ‘family room’ is being replaced by online virtual communities accessed through personal devices.

The social TV experience has its roots online and many emerging online video services like Joost, Youtube  and Hulu integrate social networking features like program ratings, “favorites” lists, discussion forums, and multi-user chat sessions directly into their offerings.

Meanwhile, Web-based social networks like Facebook and MySpace have begun embedding video applications into their sites, thereby becoming video distribution platforms in their own right, where viewing is, by definition, a social experience.

In addition to getting movie and TV recommendations from their peers, subscribers to these social networks can now stream selected content on a personal page for a shared viewing experience with visitors and “friends.” In this way, video-oriented social networks essentially become “virtual operators,” servicing the user and their group of friends.

While enhancing the user experience by making it more relevant, this also creates tremendous opportunity for targeted advertising, and the ad industry is taking note. Facebook has changed the way we look at advertising.

Social TV would take targeting to a new level.

Social features in gaming have also risen… now gamers are comfortable with connecting to friends or meet new people using various 3PD or built-in applications. These developments in gaming are certain to influence user expectations vis-a-vis the TV experience, especially as gaming becomes more integrated with TV viewing.

Social TV offerings, today, are on many operators’ roadmaps.
Online, sites like Facebook, Youtube and MySpace have been complementing TV operator services with movie recommendations for the last few years, but not very tightly.

Personalization is also driving the inclusion of Web 2.0 services, future Social TV users will be able to download widgets providing anything from weather forecasts and traffic reports to health care information to two-way video conferencing, or ratings and real-time commentary on programs, to complement and customize their TV experience.

Bridging Web 2.0 applications and widgets across all viewing devices stimulates the cross-development of applications that will encourage a more novel approach video consumption.

Note that a recent high profile Social TV launch did fail in their attempt: “Fox’s Twitter TV Experiment Tweets Its Way to Epic Failure” when users were driven off and annoyed at the intrusion of the Twitter-based babble taking up precious on-screen real-estate.

According to what was being exhibited at IBC 2009, the world’s largest broadcasting event, it appears there is a race to build the dominant Social TV middleware.

Middleware is the set of functionalities that enable the acquisition of content, its conditioning and formatting, its delivery to and rendering on the user end device. However, leaders in this space all were all offering partner SDK’s and some API’s in order to create diversity in the device ecosystem as well as stimulating innovation by third party application developers.  Middleware can support interfaces beyond the operator-provided content itself to include portals, provide conditional access and authentication across content types and have unfettered access to the Internet.

Middleware can also control and define the built-in or operator provider functionality of the rendering device (i.e., the “screen”), and can determine the state of the set-top box via APIs to the provisioning system.

Middleware is driving the development of social TV through SDKs (software development kits) and open APIs that personalize the TV experience by supporting multiple devices as well as third-party applications.

In the Open Source space, such as the OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform, recently rebranded as tru2way) and the telcos’ Open IPTV Forum, for example, are opening the set-top box to 3rd party developers who provide the social functions/applications, the same way Google’s Android open platform seeks to open up the cell phone to all networks and application developers.

Ideally creating a single open source standard for the Social TV space is the optimal solution. Not only to fuel innovation and creativity as Open Source does so well, but also provide long tail revenue models throughout the system.

Thanks to many sources online for research, particularly this paper from MIT.

Richard Kastelein, a social media strategist and publisher, is CEO of new startup, Agora Media Group LLC (link), a new creative and innovation agency based in London, UK. Kastelein has been building online communities for over a decade and is an Open Source evangelist. He’s an adept team player – a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.

Related posts:

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2. Social TV — Convergence is Coming
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