“VoD has not radically changed TV viewing”
Connected TV might be dominating industry discussion, but has VoD really altered TV viewing so far? The subject divided opinion at yesterday’s ‘The Internet Comes to TV’ event, run by MediaTel Group and Rovi.
Tom Wolfe, senior director, advanced advertising at Rovi, was positive about the platform, saying the last year has seen a greater change in the VoD market than any other year. “It’s a very exciting time,” he added. informitv’s William Cooper agreed: “The last six months have been tremendous for the industry… it is finally coming together.”
However, Channel 4’s head of VoD & channel development Sarah Rose was less sure about the real impact of on-demand, while admitting that the broadcaster thought that 4oD was going to be a lot bigger than it is now. “In my opinion we need to have a bit of a reality check,” she said. “VoD has not radically changed TV viewing.”
Earlier this week, Rhys McLachlan, head of broadcast implementation at Mediacom, said on-demand viewing only accounts for around 6% of all TV viewing (and less than 6% of investment), but despite this, the panelist say we are at a tipping point. “January 2011 will be a defining moment for connected TV,” Cooper said, imagining that Christmas will provide a boost to sales of internet-abled television sets. Although, he warned that consumers may not actually connect: “They need a compelling reason to connect their TVs to the internet when they first take them home – if they don’t do it then, chances are they never will.”
Despite Rose’s earlier observations, she also believes 2010/2011 will be the “age of convergence”. In the next one to two years, Rose sees lots of investment in apps as they become prominent on the TV screen thanks to connected TV. However, she is doubtful that consumers will understand the potential of internet TV: “Consumers still won’t have there heads around connected TV in the new few years, and as such usage won’t be high,” she predicted.
In contrast, Dan Saunders, head of content services at Samsung, is confident that consumers will gain a better understanding once more headline services launch, and, as a result, forecasts an rise in usage. He also predicted that the next year will see fragmentation concerns relieved and more common technology standards.
Cooper also remains optimistic about the rise of VoD, although he expects a real change to take around another five years. In that time, he says the market will see a lot of consolidation in the ISP arena, with five or six key players dominating (more than they do now).
For Cooper, the key will be when services get their heads around ‘fast-forward TV’, not the rewind functionality that is one of YouView’s main USPs. This might not be possible with the content viewers would most like to fast-forward (imagine being able to watch the next episode of Downton Abbey right away?!) but it could work with series such as David Attenborough’s Planet Earth, or even a US import like Lost. You heard it here first!