Industry Execs Debate “Future of Television”

One thing is clear: consumers want to control all aspects of the content.

Nov. 21, 2008 — by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Who’s winning the battle of the digital home? That was the question panelists from Macrovision, Comcast Cable, EchoStar and Verizon grappled with at the Future of Television conference held in New York this week.

The battle seems to be far from over, but consumers are weighing in with their requests and service providers are listening. According to Kurt Scherf, VP and research analyst for Parks Associates, “Consumers are starting to say, ‘I really do want my content on my terms,’” notes Scherf. “It’s not so much about the connected or digital home, it’s about how to put the content into the hands of consumers.”

On Demand
According to Brian Whitton, executive director of access technologies at Verizon’s FiOS group, much focus at Verizon has been on how to take advantage of the broad bandwidth afforded by fiber optic cable into the home. Multi-room DVR, he says, is the most obvious example of end-users exhibiting direct control over what they want to watch, when they want to watch - and even where.

EchoStar, which recently split off from the DISH Network service, sees time- and place-shifted video as top features on consumer’s video services menu. The company will have a Sling Media-based set-top box on the market in 2009. “We need to put content on any screen, in any location at any time,” says Michael Hawkey, VP of sales and marketing at EchoStar, which purchased Sling Media last year for its place-shifting technology. “The customer wants to record it in one place and finish it in another,” he says. “Now we have to extend that across the screens—not only to the TV in the bedroom but maybe to the laptop to watch on the back porch or to the mobile phone or to the son’s dorm in college. We need to be able to legally move that content around.”

At Comcast, video on demand is the killer application. Currently VOD accounts for 10 million views a year, going up to a projected 48 million views by 2012.

Macrovision, a technology company, is working on ways for consumers to locate their content as content is now available from various sources. “How do I keep track of what I own or what I might like to own?” asks Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist at Macrovision. The days are disappearing when you go down to your local Blockbuster and ask the clerk to recommend a romantic movie for tonight’s date, he notes. “Now you download it or stream it from Netflix,” he says.

Simplified Networking
The panelists discussed the importance of IP- and MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance)-based networks in the home as the number of media devices grows. “If you get at the heart of what’s driving consumers to want to watch time-shifted content, it’s because we’re all pressed for time,” says Whitton of Verizon. Networks can help bring all the devices together, but devices also have to be easy to use for consumers to gain the time-saving benefit.

“When people are buying CE equipment, the last thing they want to do is to perform a task of an IT technician in the home,” Whitton says. “While IP and MoCA networks allow the networks to exchange information, they don’t manage the flow of information.” That’s where DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) comes in.

“If a product is DLNA-certified, the customer goes home, plugs it in and it identifies itself to the network,” Whitton says. DLNA enables users to manage content. “Imagine a GUI that shows all your discovered devices—TVs, and IP camera, a Kodak digital photo frame, a network attached storage device. They all either store information or they play it, and DLNA allows a user to manage the flow.” It doesn’t stop at the four walls of the house, he adds. “If I have an MPEG file stored on my NAS box, why can’t I direct it to my cell phone?”

Consistency
As more content becomes available from various sources and devices, panelists noted, the need for a consistent interface becomes more important. “Every CE manufacturer believes that their interface is better,” says Bullwinkle of Macrovision. He adds the stack of set-top boxes is no longer a viable option for consumers and that a single box will have to perform many functions. “Consumers will learn one new interface for their new box but they won’t be willing to learn a new interface for every application within it.”

Service & Tech Support
Service and tech support are major issues that will emerge in the connected home as well. Service issues are a “train wreck” waiting to happen, according to Whitton of Verizon. “If a consumer calls Verizon because they lost content on their PC, how are you going to answer? FiOS systems come with dedicated routers so that FiOS doesn’t get the service calls when consumers have issues with store-bought routers. “You’d be surprised at the number of calls that come in from people who forgot their WEP key,” says Whitton. The Verizon router includes remote management so that the company can remotely manage FiOS system performance 24/7.

Who will support product in a DLNA world? Bullwinkle suggested a third-party Geek Squad-like support company. A former TiVo executive, Bullwinkle says, “I can’t tell you how many stories we had when the cable guy would come out and ‘fix’ the cable by unhooking TiVo.” To make the whole home work, he says, is a difficult thing. “None of us can be an expert on all the technologies in the home.”

Hawkey of EchoStar notes that the video service provider side and the computing side are poised to clash in the DLNA world. “When I get the two to connect and talk through DLNA and then Microsoft pushes an update, and all of a sudden I’ve lost all my videos because I can’t talk to the DVR in the PC from the Verizon FiOS system, that’s the scariest part for us. Do I call Best Buy or Verizon? When I say, ‘I lost the content on my PC that I was watching on the FiOS system,’ how do you answer that? Today you don’t.”

Wireless TV
All of the panelists agreed that wireless TV is far out on the horizon. “Some homes are constructed in ways that simply don’t work,” says Whitton of Verizon, citing structures such as stone homes or high-rise condominiums that aren’t conducive to wireless transmissions.

“Wireless is a wonderful technology for portability,” Whitton says, adding that most people aren’t aware that wireless in a home performs poorly because of the fading issue. “What that translates to is if you’re watching a football game in the last 30 seconds and Junior walks across and creates a fade in that wireless signal so that the signal fades out, you’re probably going to be a disgruntled customer. Customers want to be able to count on service behaving consistently 100-percent of the time. Having it work 70-80 percent of the time isn’t going to be an acceptable business model.”

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