By Thomas Dvorak

One of the most popular characters on TV today once admitted: “I watch about six hours of TV a day. Seven if there’s something good on.” Now Bart Simpson might not be the most credible source, but I think this quote sums up how many people regard the TV experience of today. The way I see it, the average viewer comes home from work just longing to sit back and watch TV. Many people don’t like to stick to a viewing schedule and instead prefer to take their pick from the variety of programmes, depending on their mood. But before they get a chance to exhale, they find themselves confronted by a mass of content from a range of genres all intertwined through a confusing Electronic Programming Guide (EPG).

They can’t see anything remotely suited to their interests but persevere and continue to scroll through the list in the hope that something crops up that sparks their interest. They even try scouring the catch-up services in the hope they’ve missed something that was on the day before. Before they know it, they’ve spent an hour channel zapping and eventually give up or switch to their PC to find something on the Internet. Now if this is the regular experience of a typical viewer, it seems that the current organisational format benefits neither the provider nor the subscriber. Surely in 2010 it should be better than this? What happened to enjoying TV? Where’s the problem?

What can be done to make it all simpler?

The problem is that today there’s too much choice. In the old days, content was broadcast to viewers via three or four channels but today’s viewers are faced with nearer four hundred channels and forced to scroll through a huge list of programmes - from comedy, news and politics, to history, wildlife and geography – many of which are completely irrelevant to their tastes and needs. What’s more, today’s generic EPG, regardless of how extensive, does little to inspire the viewer to choose what he actually likes; what we need is a proper content recommendation service that allows the programmes on offer to be organised according to people’s individual preferences.

Giving consumers a more customised service is not only proven to increase TV consumption, but also subscriber loyalty - and our research has shown that viewers are actually willing to pay more for a personalised service. Implementations have shown that viewers who have access to personalised content which is recommended to them based on their own profiles, habits and personal rules, are more likely to pay for films and other VoD and premium content. So in actual fact, it’s good for consumer satisfaction levels and content and service providers benefit from being able to up sell and so maximise revenues.

But does this mean less choice?

The simple fact is that there’s too much content for programmes to be presented in one single format. We’re talking more channels, video on demand (VoD), new catch-up platforms, and Internet videos, not to mention new quality differentiators such as HD and 3DTV. And they’re all mounting up. What we need is a revolution in programme organisation; a new form of content recommendation that optimises the choice people have without compromising on viewer satisfaction. While it no longer makes sense to organise content according to the production house or the commissioning body, instead it should be arranged categorically and individually to fit a particular personal genre – their own comedy channel, CSI channel, or Snooker channel. This not only gives people easy access to the type of thing they like watching, but it also creates revenue opportunities for content providers and service operators by ensuring the right content is seen by its intended target audience.

So how would it work?

New content recommendation technologies are designed to take the crammed EPG, flip it on its head, and create targeted personal channels based on what an individual or family likes to watch. So it will find and filters content from any source – be it TV, VoD or Internet - and deliver it straight to your own personal TV channels. So, if you like ‘The Simpsons’, for example, the chances are you’ll also like ‘Family Guy’, and the solution will automatically make the recommendation and ask if you’d like to add upcoming episodes to your “personal comedy channel”. The technology is intuitive, meaning that viewers can quickly and easily access exactly which programmes have been recommended to them and ultimately watch what they want, when they want to.

What about advertisers?

For lots of people adverts have become a frustrating part of their viewing experience. For one, the content is generic, and instead of being targeted to a specific audience, they are widely streamed with the aim of reaching as many viewers as possible. Nowadays, viewers are forced to watch so many dull and often completely irrelevant adverts that they feel bombarded by content that detracts from their overall enjoyment of TV. If we consider that the holy grail of advertising lies in the ability to tailor adverts to what people are really interested in, providing a more personalised and tailored service to viewers could open up a whole host of opportunities for advertisers.

By ensuring commercial content is always contextually relevant and highly targeted to viewers’ interests, ad developers can create much longer, more informative “Info-mercial” type adverts that they know will be watched by the people who are most likely to buy the product or service. In this way, when content is delivered to consumers based on their interests, advertising can move away from being something that viewers potentially skip through, to become an enriching, entertaining and educational part of the viewing experience.

There is also the question of timing. Nowadays, it sometimes seems as much time is spent watching adverts than the actual programmes themselves. Ten years ago, a TV programme would be interrupted maybe twice, and for only a few minutes, but adverts have since become such a huge part of the broadcasting industry that viewers have very little control over when they are shown and for how long. Advertisers can take advantage of the permission-based, pay-per-view model offered through recommendation services, and can benefit from knowing exactly which adverts are actually watched and by whom. This means that ad-skipping – a lingering threat to the industry - has no impact on the advertiser’s investment and they can measure more precisely the return on their advertising spend.

So what can we expect for the future?

New technologies are being developed now that will revolutionise the TV viewing experience and put more control back into the hands of the viewers. With new services emerging, these are exciting times and the broadcast industry should grasp the opportunity to reinvent the way viewers watch TV. A more targeted and personalised approach to content will unleash a number of opportunities for content and service providers and ad developers, and allow them to make watching TV once again a positive and rewarding experience.

About the author

Thomas Dvorak is chief marketing officer at APRICO Solutions, a video content recommendation and targeting engine and part of Philips Electronics.

http://www.aprico.tv/