New Pay-TV Program Guides Coming As Video Choices Increase
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Pay-TV operators and vendors are working on new on-screen guides to keep up with the pace of innovation of over-the-top services such as Netflix Watch Instantly and Apple TV, executives at the Set Top Box Conference said last week. But they diverged on how consumers will want to navigate all the programming choices after operators integrate DVR, VOD and online video options into a single user-interface.
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"There are still going to be a whole bunch of customers for the foreseeable future that like the traditional four button navigation,” said Vivek Khemka, Dish Network vice president of customer technology. Nearly 15 percent of viewers still channel surf until they find something to watch when they sit down in front of the TV, said Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist for Rovi. “Not only do they not know what’s on, they don’t care what’s on.” That breeds skepticism about whether viewers will want to search for content on their TVs, he said. An average viewer spends 12 minutes per day with a pay-TV guide, and for some, simply looking at what’s on is entertainment in itself, he said.
New, Internet-connected guides need to involve more images and metadata than current offerings, Bullwinkle said. “A connected guide should have photos in the grid … deep actor profiles, quick links to previous and future episodes.” Increasingly, guides will incorporate social media aspects, so viewers can see and act on their friends’ recommendations, he said. “Over time I think we'll see guides go away and recommendation engines will become more important."
Guides must be flexible to adapt to user needs, said Larry Yang, lead platform project manager for Google TV. Some will want to search, others to browse by genre, or an enhanced program guide or recommendations, he said. “For different situations, a given user may want to do one or the other,” he said. “Certain users are more comfortable with one or another. Whatever the user interface is, it has to be flexible.”
New guides will also be more personalized, said Bullwinkle. “Devices have to be able to communicate your profile to each other,” he said, “so that when you're browsing your iPad, you have the same guide as on your TV.” Those features will have to work across manufacturers because consumers won’t stick to a single CE brand across all their products, he said. Using mobile devices to identify viewers will be important because viewers “are not ready to log into their TV yet,” he said. “When you start using your personal device to interact with your guide … then we can get a more accurate as to who is in front of the TV."
As consumers connect more devices to the TV sets, the one with the best user interface will become the primary device, said Ameer Karim, Entone vice president of hybrid TV solutions. This is getting operators to add more features to their guide and set-top boxes, he said. “Their fear is that there’s an influx of sub-$100 boxes and people are going out and buying them and potentially cancelling their subscription.”