Welcome to our new head of development

It’s that time of the year where it’s obligatory to make a few predictions about the year ahead.  Here’s my topline thoughts on what’s in-store for British TV broadcasters and producers in 2012:

5 things that are likely to happen

1. Massive upheaval in TV commissioning teams
For those commissioners that have their fingers firmly in their ears when it comes to multi-platform storytelling 2012 will be the year they get found out. Maybe five years ago it was cute to say “I’m no good with computers”, now it’s frankly embarrassing when you’re supposed to be in touch with how your audience are behaving. Channel 4 will probably be the most visible broadcaster to transform its commissioning team – weeding out people that are either not capable in a convergent age or are stale from too many years in the same place, and unlike in previous years where it was a case of musical chairs in the TV commissioning job market expect to see new types of producer stepping into their empty shoes.  With some big departures already announced at C4 it will be interesting to see who they hire.  Where Channel 4 lead expect others to follow – not least at UKTV now 50% owned by US network Scripps who will be looking to drive revenues through their digital lifestyle properties.  ITV on the other hand will probably continue to flail around in a state of utter confusion.

2. Reform of independent production commissioning quotas
With NewsCorp, NBC Universal & Time Warner rapidly snapping up indies (plus Endemol and All3Media likely candidates for acquisition in 2012) there will be an increasing pressure to reconsider the effectiveness of indie commissioning quotas in supporting grassroots creative TV production businesses.  I’m told that when Jeremy Hunt recommends reform to quotas in the forthcoming Communications Act he’ll be under considerable pressure from the BBC to replace the current ‘catch all’ indie quotas with a quota for start-up and small independent producers.  The likely effect on the big indies will be marginal as they already have diverse and often international businesses, but for smaller players this could be a huge boost and precipitate a new wave of startups (particularly led by key talent currently in broadcasters and the bigger indie groups).

3. The Rise and Rise of YouTube
2011 was the year where Google’s Eric Schmidt extended the hand of friendship to the TV broadcast and production community at Edinburgh TV Festival – wanting to bring together the ‘luvvies’ and the ‘boffins’ (all of course mediated by Google technologies and platforms).  Burnt by the lack of interest in Google TV in the US during 2011 Google were in overdrive wooing the British TV community as they prepare to launch Google TV in the UK.  Now in 2012 we’ll see how far Google are willing to go when the broadcasters most likely don’t play ball.  Google already have thousands of hours of professional content in production for a new suite of YouTube ‘channels’ and expect them to ramp this up further.  I’d put money on YouTube securing exclusivity with a number of key TV personalities to front content for them (is Jamie Oliver’s contract up soon?  Or what about Oprah or Doctor Phil?) plus they’ll go after sports rights, first look movies, bring back TV series – expect Google to write some big cheques for content in 2012.

4. Battle of the connected TV services
Putting Google TV to one side there will be a huge push by Microsoft to turn the XBox in to a premiere entertainment hub with a number of high profile content deals coming on stream in early 2012.  There’s the launch of youview *sometime* next year which, if done correctly, could be the logical next generation of Freeview for 8million+ homes. There’s the increasing sales of connected TV’s from the likes of Samsung, Panasonic, LG etc as people upgrade their TV’s for the summer olympics (although a continuing lack of compelling ‘app’ content will remain on these CE devices because of platform fragmentation), and finally there’s the rumoured entry of Apple in Q3 with an Apple TV set which will inevitably have a fantastic product design, intuitive UI (possibly using Siri) and great content via iTunes.  Away from the consumer electronics space there will also be some big entrants on the content distribution front – not least Netflix launching in the UK in early 2012, but don’t be surprised in Tesco does something clever too following its purchase of Blinkbox.

5. A breakthrough multiplatform format
This is the one I’m really hoping for!  There’s been success with shows like “Million Pound Drop” and tomorrow Channel 4′s next big interactive gameshow “The Bank Job” is due to launch, but I hope 2012 will deliver something truly transmedia that breaks all the rules.  I’m not saying “Million Pound Drop” isn’t a great show – it is – but I’m not sure how much we’ve really moved on in terms of play-along since BBC’s “The National IQ Test” which is now officially 10 years old!  Yes achieving 12% playalong levels is very good but I would love to see something that is so compelling to the audience they just have to participate!  I’m not saying all TV should be like that – lean back television is what the audience want most of the time – but I’m hoping 2012 will see at least a couple of new immersive formats that push boundaries, particularly in genres other than traditional studio gameshows… that’s certainly my personal focus for 2012.

3 weeks ago I bought myself a sexy new Samsung smart TV, then just over a week ago came the perfect accompaniment in the form of Zeebox for the iPad.  Sure it may not be the most incredibly groundbreaking idea to create a TV listings app that delivers and allows you to share contextual information about what you’re watching – but then it’s simple things which often catch on.  Most of us have done the conference circuit and heard talk after talk about all the amazing possiblities of the second screen syncing to TV (from interactive ads to transmedia TV formats, shopping to new forms of content discovery), but now someone’s actually done something about it, and you’ve gotta at least respect that.

So here’s what I like:

1. Simple, intuitive and clean UI: It’s a really sleek design on iPad.  I love the forwards/backwards EPG (albeit limited to now, next and the previous show).  Clearly Anthony Rose has taken one of the better ideas from youview and run with it, although it would obviously be very exciting if/when it integrates with catch-up services.  I also like the simple ways of organising content by channel, popularity, friends and genres… if I had more than one friend on Zeebox I’m sure the ‘friends’ view would be quite compelling, which takes me on to…

2. Social features: It’s nice I can see what my friends are watching (although maybe my friends don’t appreciate me knowing they’re watching ‘Boob Envy’ on PickTV).  I like the prospect of inviting friends to view with me (again, when I have more friends on the app).  It’s a great bit of foresight to automatically add the show hashtag when I go to tweet.  And the fact my login to the app is via Facebook Connect makes life easy too.

3. Zeetags: Sure some of these aren’t quite right – but they’re pretty spot on!  While everyone else seems to be talking up investing shed loads of money into audio stream technologies Anthony Rose has taken the simpler and cheaper approach of generating tags from subtitles.  Ok – so it’s not that exciting that zeetags only lead to wikipedia and news – but there is HUGE commercial and creative potential here for both broadcasters, content owners and third parties – zeetags could be like a google adwords (or promoted tweets) for TV.

4. Controls your TV: I love the fact it can switch between channels on my TV – that makes it worth it alone.  Of course it’s pretty limited right now and doesn’t really address the issue that I tend to flick between Freeview HD and Sky – but again there’s a lot of potential as Zeebox is cutting out the remote and the traditional EPG – again a clever move with big implications (how long until a service like YouTube or Netflix buys a placement in the Zeebox EPG?).

5. Fast: It goes without saying but to keep my attention the app needs to download images/metadata quickly and be traction free – and it is pretty good in this regard.

There’s a few other bits in Zeebox that I’ve not tried or don’t really pay attention to (shopping, audience popularity, twitter feed (but that’s because I have my tweets open in tweetdeck on my third screen)), but then I’m sure others do use them.

The big thing for me is this has the potential to be disruptive.  So no one’s heard of ‘Zeebox’ as a brand yet, but how far behind are the broadcasters with their own version of this kind of thing?  If youview try to do something then are we to wait another year?  In that time zeebox (which will be on iPhone and android too I’d guess) may be a destination in its own right.  I was running a brainstorm called ‘Death of the Remote Control’ at Mindshare last Thursday and I was taken aback when I showed them Zeebox and they got very excited at how they could promote brands through zeetags… there are serious dollars which might leak to this kind of third party app.

So what are broadcasters to do?  They can get on board and make Zeebox an even more compelling proposition by giving it access to advertising timelines, additional content, interactive features, on-demand, and maybe in return share that potential revenue and get some valuable data?  Or they can try to kill it – create technical standards that make integration complex, deny it access to on-demand content, or try to create something better (and stay better).

It’s an exciting (and shrewd) move on the part of Anthony Rose.  To deliver something like this in under 9 months is pretty impressive, and the broadcasters are going to struggle to move at that pace themselves. I look forward to seeing what Zeebox, broadcasters and advertisers do next.

Zeebox Video Tutorial

Since coming back from our summer holidays things have been gearing up and we’re getting a bit stretched – that’s why we’re looking for a brilliant freelance iPhone UX expert to help us out for a few days on an exciting mobile app we’re building for a leading TV broadcaster.  Please feel free to pass this around if you know anyone who’s both talented and (even more importantly) lovely to work with – ask them to email jason@theconnectedset.tv

iPhone UX expert
approx. 5 days consultancy initially
(to start ASAP but can be spaced out over a few weeks if preferred)

We’re looking for an expert from the world of mobile UX to take what is currently a topline concept and work with us to create a compelling product vision.  You do not need to be a high-fidelity visual designer, but you do need proven senior experience of working in the mobile UX field.  You must be totally comfortable with facilitating and interpreting user research, story-boarding, running brainstorms/design workshops, all leading up to creating detailed functional/design specifications, sitemaps and wireframes for our development team and visual designer.  In an ideal world you’ll have worked on mobile products for TV broadcasters and have a good understanding of the UK TV market.  This is a quick turnaround prototype project so we need someone who can work quickly and efficiently with a smile on their face.  This project will be run from London or Brighton.  I appreciate it’s only 5 days work initially, but if we like you (and you like us) there’s much more in pipeline!  Please do get in touch: jason@theconnectedset.tv

Earlier this week I read Deloitte’s report “TV+”, published to coincide with Edinburgh Television Festival.  One section that I found particularly interesting was buried at the back of the report and is all about TV’s relationship with shopping.  No doubt as IBC kicks off in Amsterdam broadcasters and producers will be looking at all kinds of tech solutions to bring TV viewing and online shopping closer together.

We’ve known for a long time that TV has driven shopping – from Jamie Oliver selling cookery books to Teletubbies toys.  In fact the Deloitte study shows that even amongst the 18-24 age group (who spend considerable amounts of time engaging with media other than TV) in the last year one in five found out about a new product and then bought it after seeing it on TV.  1 in 5 you say?  Well the only influencing factors higher were recommendations from friends or coming across the product in a store – social networks didn’t come close.

TV raises awareness of products more than any other media – and yet it’s hard to follow the path from seeing a product on TV and actually parting with hard earned cash.  On the web it’s so much simpler to track as, if people don’t buy it in situ, you can prove their path to the purchase.  Of course convergence offers big opportunities for TV – to take people all the way from ‘awareness’ to ‘transaction’.  Deloitte point to three trends that mean TV is in a great place to becomme a bigger force in shopping:

1. Connected devices in the living room – from smartphones (set to rise to 60% penetration over the next four years) to tablets (which are due to be sold at the same rate as HD TVs in the UK) – increasingly viewers will have the equivalent of a digital till sitting in their laps.

2. Multi-screening – almost half of the Delloite survey sample are browsing the web while they watch TV either ‘frequently’ or ‘almost always’.  Only one year ago 38% of people never two-screened, now it’s less than 25% (and amongst 18-24 year olds it’s only 3% who don’t do it!).  This behaviour means TV is increasingly having the power to influence and drive web based purchasing in real time.

3. E-commerce – Britain is the world’s leading online shopping nation – we spend more time buying things online than in any other nation. E-commerce already represents a sizeable 10% of all retail sales in the UK and that is growing 50% every year.  Even now, amongst those browsing the web while they watch TV, shopping is the second most popular activity (45% of this group and 50% of women).

So we know TV plays a significant part in influencing purchasing decisions.  Now convergence means we can track consumers to the till, but more than that, we can encourage and fulfil the impulse purchase.  Every broadcaster is thinking about incremental revenue opportunities, and this certainly presents an opportunity, but the report does recommend caution – that broadcasters being overt about trying to sell products could not only cause a brand backlash, but even more serious it could precipitate a wholesale shift from premium display advertising to commission-based advertising.  Convergence of TV and e-commerce is an exciting prospect for broadcasters and content producers, but just as fraught with risk as it is with opportunity.

Apologies that it’s been so long since my last blog – things have been busy with a rather exciting development project we’ve secured with a broadcaster.  I’m sworn to silence on that for now, but I can talk about this…

Yesterday the good and the great of the digital world came together at Horseferry Road to hear Channel 4’s vision for creating a new type of relationship with the viewer, and a new relationship with new suppliers.

The changing viewer relationship is about the shift to personalisation – from a homogenised mass audience all seeing the same ads or being offered the same catch-up content when they logon to 4oD for example, to a bespoke and immersive experience with the Channel 4 network – what they call ‘4D’: feeling part of television.

This data-driven vision will be realised by the creation of a universal registration system across Channel 4’s assets, plus the creation of new truly-2-way multiplatform television formats that both capture data and enhance the viewer experience (or should I say ‘fan’/’customer’ experience).

Truly interactive, immersive and personalised formats are a key plank in that virtuous circle that satisfies the fans, delivers value to advertisers, and ultimately delivers investment back into the creative sector.

So who is the creative sector that Channel 4 is looking to engage?  It’s been pretty widely recognised that the network has had a dependence on the super-indie suppliers, but now there are signs that’s changing.  We’ve heard it before for sure, but they’ve actually put money down to spend on this cause – in the convergence fund and for the smallest and newest suppliers: the Alpha Fund.  On forging new supplier relationships and boosting the supply of ideas head of online Richard Davidson-Houston said:

“We don’t believe in a hierarchy of TV and other platforms – a multiplatform TV format can come from a digital company… we are looking for new ways to tell stories… and we want ideas and stories from new sources”.

This was backed up by commissioning editor for convergent formats Anna Cronin and multiplatform commissioning lead Louise Brown who reiterated good ideas can come from anywhere, and they see a big part of their remit as partnering the people who think up great ideas with the people that are great at building stuff.  Collaboration is the future of new formats – it’s a good challenge to the big proprietary super-indie business model of recent years.

So, what ideas do they want?

Well often they know it when they see it but the headlines for me were that for convergent formats there’s an urgent call for ideas now… the thing that differentiates a convergent format from a multiplatform commission is that these are future formats that can’t be delivered right now – because the technology isn’t there yet for example.  It’s about the next evolution of the TV format, pure experimentation, and something that if it went further down the line wouldn’t be realised on screen until at least 2013.

Multiplatform commissioning needs on the other hand are more immediate – with development funds available this year leading to commissions throughout 2012.  Key bullet points are: ambitious, simple and clear, audience behaviour driven, entertaining, risky, bringing in great talent from UX people to games developers.  Key genre needs are new access and formats for features, funny games/quizzes for entertainment, ideas to get the public excited and engaged with Channel 4′s paralympics coverage in 2012, and in news something defining to set the pace.

Get pitching!

Imano has just published a great infographic on how Brits are using their iPads.  Here’s a quick summary:

As a leisure device:
95% of owners use it in their living room and 89% in bed. Internet browsing and email is the killer application (98% and 94% respectively), but 88% are also using it to consume video, music and radio, and 78% use it for social networking. iPads are primarily for leisure – less than half of respondents use it for work.

A great transaction platform:
78% of owners use their iPad for online shopping. What’s very impressive is that half of owners (48%) say their iPad is the internet connected device they spend the most money on – more than mobile (11%), laptop (16%), fixed computer (19%) and cable/internet TV (4%).  If broadcasters/content owners want a transactional relationship with their viewers in the future then chances are this will not be via red button but via a second screen, particularly a tablet.  However investment in second screen commerce will be limited until iPad/tablet penetration picks up (which will probably come as prices drop). In terms of apps most iPad owners have paid-for 20-49 apps.

A shared device
31% of iPad users say they’re the only user.  50% of users share it with a spouse/partner, and 29% let their children use their iPad. While we talk about mobile as personal device, we need to design apps for iPad that can switch between a state of being personal and communal.

A strong connection with gaming consoles
I thought it was particularly striking that 51% of iPad users also own a Wii, 34% own a PS3 and 30% an XBOX – a far higher proportion of console owners that the broader population. We’ve already seen iPad used as a remote control with Comcast Xfinity amongst others, how long will it be until the iPad becomes the games console controller? Also, 79% of British owners use the iPad itself as a gaming device.

For watching video
The most popular source of video on iPad is YouTube (87%), closely followed by catch-up TV (74%).  The catch up TV stat is pretty impressive when you consider that it’s really only iPlayer that offer a full inventory of catch up material, with Channel 4’s 4oD service offering limited content and Sky Player costing £8 per month (although that’s changing shortly when Sky launch Sky Go)… this is going to be a major growth area.

iPad owners are real advocates
94% of British iPad users love their iPad – 70% say it’s ‘excellent’, and 24% say “it’s the best thing in my life”… oh dear!

Screen shot from Imano: click here for the full infographic

This weekend saw the first episode of ‘New Look: Style the Nation‘ air on Channel 4′s teen strand T4.  Fully funded by retailer New Look the show made some big strides towards engaging the multitasking teen audience.  If you missed it you can watch the TV show on 4oD (but your second screen experience will be very limited).

The television bit was made by TwoFour, the second screen elements by Monterosa, but as an overall package the two fused nicely during the live broadcast.  From the top of the show there were calls to action – prompting the audience to get online and create looks for themselves and their friends based on that week’s fashion theme: ‘Festival looks’.  Once you’d given over some basic information the app prompted you to answer five interesting questions around music tastes, celebrities you admire, what kind of festivals you’re into, etc – and from this it deduces your fashion style (in my case I’m a ‘Military Man’).  This use of lifestyle questions (displayed in a visually engaging way) was a really accessible way of getting people to narrow down their fashion type.

Next up you’re presented with a virtual mannequin to dress from a selection of clothing choices within your personal fashion subset.  This is where you start to get a real taste of the future of television as you can then buy your look on the New Look website.  The experience isn’t yet perfect, for example you can’t put the whole look into your basket but have to do each item individually, and it would be nice if it could make some clothing suggestions for you, but it’s a clever way of getting more bang for the advertiser’s buck – taking engagement right through to transaction.  The site also offers an additional ‘carrot’ in the form of a 10% discount code.

While dressing yourself online is kind of fun there are two aspects of the second screen experience I particularly love.  First it’s dressing your friends: Monterosa have built a really social app by allowing people to pick their friend’s (via the Facebook API), dress virtual mannequins for them (I love the fact it automatically detects their gender), and then post it directly to their friends Facebook wall – and of course your friend (or you yourself) can go buy that stuff straight away.  There’s also a financial reward (a £5 off voucher) if you do this for 3 of your friends.  For me, as a TV junkie, I always love it when things come full circle in the TV show and so my favourite bit has to be the viewers’ catwalk section on TV when a selection of the best looks created online by viewers are then modeled on the catwalk LIVE, with comments from fashion experts in the studio.  I’m also looking forward to later in the series when a contestant for the TV show will be cast online – again a nice convergence of television and web participation.

There are a few other neat tricks too – an online vote at the end of the show with the results announced live on TV, plus fashion tips and exclusive content – you can tell a lot of thought has gone into the project.  There are a few things lacking – in terms of the smoothness of the commerce side, plus as it’s a flash based app it doesn’t translate to mobile (even Android in this case), but I’d question which of the existing elements would actually be suited to mobile, and to be fair this is only series 1!  I suppose the biggie for me is the engagement outside of the live show… because T4 live television viewing audiences are pretty small and a big part of the media value for New Look will be measured in television repeats – I wonder if there are a few more things that could be done to create a sense of liveness or immediacy within repeats; maybe some live overlays, some topical inserts… if only money we’re no object!

I don’t want to end this post on a sour note though… there’s always more that can be done, and that’s what a second series is for.  It’s exciting to see television take this step forward, and I hope New Look will be a progressive advertiser in terms of how they measure success.  They need to look past pure media value from TV exposure but also look at other metrics – not only pure revenues driven directly through the second screen app (which I suspect will be small), but the goodwill and brand currency created through the social functions of the second screen.

Look out for episode 2 on Saturday 11 June at 11.25am.

5 years ago many media commentators were predicting the end of the linear TV and the death of the television schedule as people migrated to on-demand internet delivered TV, or simply moved their attention to other types of online content.  The reality is that linear viewing has held strong- in both number of hours (over 4 hours per day and growing) and the proportion of viewing (95% of TV content is still viewed live).  The prediction that the web would cannibalise television was too simplistic; in many cases it has provided a new platform for existing viewers to interact with shows on the second screen, thereby deepening their engagement, and the web has even driven new audiences to TV and cemented live viewing as people discuss and share shows on facebook, twitter, and many of the new generation of social TV apps… the ‘watercooler moment’ has become realtime!

This is all great news surely?  Well yes and no – because this 4^th dimension of television, the social layer, has implications for the type of content that UK broadcasters want.

The shows that generate buzz are typically ‘live’ or ‘event’ TV… X-Factor, Million Pound Drop, The Apprentice, live sports – television that demands linear viewing because if you don’t watch live you’ll either miss out on the water cooler conversation (which can often be as much fun as the actual show), or in the case of most reality shows you’ll miss the result and therefore lose out on the entertainment of guessing the outcome… I’m sure it’s not just me that’s had my catch-up viewing plans ruined by finding out who got fired on The Apprentice on the twitter stream?

The economics of production (particularly the relatively lower cost of reality over drama), the economics of broadcasting (the need to capture large simultaneous audiences to satisfy advertisers), combined with the social layer as a driver to live TV and a new form of audience insight will increasingly drive commissioners and schedulers to live and event telly, but what does this mean for other genres?

Many of us appreciated critically acclaimed dramas like ‘Any Human Heart’ or ‘Red Riding’ on TV, but the truth is they didn’t rate, these kinds of dramas rarely rate, and they’re expensive to make – commercially most of them don’t make sense for TV broadcasters.  I’m not saying drama never works in terms of ratings or buzz – look at Downtown Abbey, Doctor Who, The Inbetweeners – just that in the pursuit of maintaining audience sizes and share broadcasters will increasingly have to rely on live, event and participative content that creates and feeds off the buzz online. Furthermore I’m not saying drama can’t be commercially successful, many dramas make lots of money from international sales, downloads, DVDs, but most of that cash goes back to the producer/distributor, not the broadcaster.  For now viewers and UK producers are in a somewhat fortunate position to have two PSB broadcasters in the BBC and Channel 4 who are obliged to produce types of content like drama (and documentary) that don’t typically demand live viewing from the audience, but there’s no guarantee in the long-term that this commitment will stay.

So the importance of social network activity may not be good for all genres and all viewers in the UK, but the resulting glut of reality and live TV may ultimately not be good for the growth of on-demand services – because if all the content we’re watching (or at least the content that gets decent levels of investment) is live and only relevant to that point in time then who’s going to watch it further down the line?  I certainly wouldn’t watch last years Strictly Come Dancing again, but I might watch a great original British drama a year later, 10 years later, and further down the line.

So what’s the solution?  I’m no drama expert but I’d suggest three things.  First UK drama producers need to re-examine the terms of trade -  if they want broadcasters to pay for a large chunk of their glossy high-price-tag drama they need to accept that broadcasters should get a longer window for offering this content on-demand, or otherwise the economics don’t make sense… and UK drama will ultimately lose out to both US drama and other cheaper programme genres.  Second producers need to innovate – they need look at interesting ways of engaging audiences to create a buzz that doesn’t ruin the linear experience – and a great example would be in shows like Misfits or Skins who build an active fanbase pre-broadcast, drip feed content between episodes and constantly reward their fans. There are lots of other examples too, from Hollyoaks asking the public to be a virtual jury of a rape trial in the drama, to shows like Dexter in the US that created an animated series to run online between series.  Finally, dare I say it (I know this is an easy thing to say but less easy to do): broadacasters, producers and distributors need to invest more in UK drama – to make what the UK does do stand its own against US imports – to create fewer but bigger longer-running drama brands that attract international attention, international investment, and a broader and bigger noise on social networks… shows like Torchwood have started making these steps with international production, lots of interesting participative elements, but there’s a long way to go.