Thinking about future TV/IPTV

We have got ourselves into a right old mess today trying to combine TV and the internet. Lots of crazy solutions are around, content suppliers don't know which way to turn and who to licence for delivery of their work. We have chaos and profusion: BT Vision, Virgin, TalkTalk TV, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel4 4od, Five demand, Sky player, iTunes, Blinkbox, Fetch TV, 3View, Seesaw, TV Catchup, Joost, JumpTV, and so it goes, on and on...

Frankly that is no way to treat consumers or suppliers. These middlemen are crazy, or maybe it is us, we are crazy to even think about using them and content providers are crazy to keep pumping their content into these delivery channels.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was an alliance of suppliers, all delivering their content in the same way (pay per view for example, with consistent technical standards - MPEG4/H264 etc) and we could just chose our favourite viewing software or box as a consumer preference - just a piece of hardware/software all compatible with any content supplier... That's what I want anyway. Not to be badgered by thousands of diversified offerings!

Wrong thinking

In the home we have a TV. This is often the centre of our living space, and arranged so that we group around it for a common viewing experience. Why then would we want internet browsing on the TV (a la Google?), who is going to do the browsing and who are the unfortunate ones who have to watch someone else click around?

No the TV cannot be a way to browse the internet. There has to be something specific (iTunes?). And again here we have a problem: IPTV services can be created so that the internet can be the delivery chain for TV, but what's the point in that, satellite is much better (bandwidth...). And no broadcasters seem to be able to provide POD (programs on demand, past and future) because of rights limitations.

What the internet can bring is VOD (movies). You request the program you want, and you get it ASAP. All that is then needed is a way to pay for it and the internet can do that also.

But you still end up with a communal viewing experience. What if you want to check out the internet whilst viewing a program?

You need a 2nd screen of course!

Another thing

The greatest problem is that all current offerings are one way. They are directed solely at the TV screen.

But what we need is integration between the computer and the TV. We need the two way flow of data.

This means the data that drives the EPG must be output from the TV to our computers. They can then use this to provide a better consumer experience.

I could have my iPad in my hand, it could provide me with official statistics while a politician is answering a question on Question Time. It could give me sports statistics while I watch the Olympics, because it knows, from the TV data, what being shown and can run off to the internet and find the data.

The future of systems like YouView is not on the TV screen, it is on the

TV AND the personal computer,

combined.

The current obsession of media delivery chains to have exclusive delivery of copyright content to one screen, your TV, is a distraction from this development.