Lives Of Our Days

Steve Sammartino wrote a great piece on what internet television needs earlier today. Here’s what it all comes down to, according to Steve:

So here’s the things it really needs:

• Smart phone enabled control pads / remotes.
• Aggregation sites which curate content from places like Youtube and other video sites to give a ‘network style experience’.
• Curation of longer videos on the web – videos that run for less than 20 minutes are annoying.
• History pattern suggested shows to view – genius style.
• Geo located news & viewing experiences.
• Full access to all studios output, not just manufacturer based deals.

Just like web search has become. The TV needs to be agnostic about where the content comes from and just deliver what people want. Once this happens, TV will never be the same again.

I couldn’t agree more, although I might have phrased things slightly differently… Smart remotes, aggregation, curation, recommendations - it’s all about discovery.

A few months ago I wrote a paper explaining where I thought IPTV was heading, drawing inspiration from the following TechCrunch quote:

Discovery is the dominant paradigm on Connected TV. This is in big contrast to the two paradigms driving the web – search and communication. The two largest web companies — Google and Facebook are driven by these two fundamental behaviors. But the vast majority of users turn on their TV without any intent — they aren’t planning to search for a particular piece of content or use their TV to communicate with friends. Instead, they’re engaged in channel surfing and looking for inspiration.

Just as filter failure remains the greatest problem to solve on the internet, exactly the same problem requires solving once the most important screen in our house becomes a conduit to the all that the web has to offer… With so much content out there, how can I discover new videos, articles and products which are most relevant to my particular circumstances at any one time?

That’s why I’m such a big fan of the work my friends and neighbours Filter Squad are doing with their series of Discovr apps… Big problems, simple solutions.

As the guys from Better By Design said at Species012:

Why are  the iPod, iPhone and iPad so successful?

Because they promote an analog response to the digital revolution – they bring touch, feel  and emotion to something that is otherwise intangible to the majority of consumers.

They herald the rise of physical objects in the digital domain.

They take people to the other side of the glass.

PS: While we’re on the topic of TV, screens, media, design, advertising and the interwebs, here’s a few choice quotes from other articles that I’ve come across lately…

Connected TV Will Change The Way We Consume Media

What happens if every display surface is an interactive surface as well? So actually the screen knows who’s in front of it, whether they’re looking at the screen or not, or either with a gesture of the hand or touch or even an eye movement they can interact with the display.

Great Advertising Is Content

Make no mistake about it, all advertising is now opt-in.

And last but not least Google Makes Renewed Grab For The Rest Of Online Advertising

Most ad dollars, nearly $200 billion a year, still get spent on television because it’s so much easier.

That’s the problem Google aims to solve with a revamped ad buying system it will announce today… The company, which already dominates 60% of the online ad business–those little text ads that appear on the right and top of the page when you do a search–now has its sights set on the remaining 40% of the industry. That would be the $25 billion worldwide market for display ads, the graphical and video banners familiar on virtually every commercial website.

Google’s goal: Provide the leading one-stop shop for advertisers and publishers to buy ads on websites, mobile phones, social networks, apps, and whatever other new media the Internet spawns. Essentially, it’s building an operating system for ads much like Microsoft did with its Windows for PCs–with much the same appeal to marketers and agencies as Windows has for PC users.

Smart move Google… Sure, it’s a pity that so many smart minds are focusing their energies on squeezing advertising dollars from eyeballs, but from a strategic sense this makes perfect sense to me.

From Seth Godin:

Now that just about everyone is in the business of selling their time in some form, it’s important to be aware that even if something doesn’t cost you cash out of your wallet, the opportunity cost is not only real, it’s just as valuable. Not only does it cost money to say ‘no’, it costs money to say ‘yes’.