Personalisation is the key for the TV Industry, Says ANT
13 November 2008
More personalisation could save the broadcasting and advertising industries, says Richard Baker, VP of Sales and Marketing at ANT, the provider of digital TV solutions. Viewers are being pushed and pulled by the various devices in their lives whether it’s the laptop, mobile device or TV. The challenge for next generation TV services is to attract and retain viewers. Service providers therefore need to package and deliver TV content in a much more tailored way if they are to continue to compete effectively with alternative consumer devices, Baker says.
Personalisation and interactivity have been hailed as the saviours of the broadcasting and advertising industries, yet Baker believes that next generation TV services have much more to offer viewers. He points to the growth in on-demand viewing as proof that people want to consume content in a very different way today.
UK television audiences, for example, are rapidly adopting on-demand technology as it moves from the PC to the living room. More than half of Virgin Media's 3.5m television customers use its on-demand video platform. Usage grew 33 per cent in the first eight months of the year, with 45m views in August. Virgin is the only TV operator to currently offer the BBC iPlayer and its viewers make up about a third of total viewing for the service, which can otherwise be accessed only via PCs or mobile devices. BT expects BBC iPlayer to be available on BT Vision next year.
“On demand viewing is just one element of personalisation. But the interesting question is how will service providers monetize this archived content?” says Baker. “Personalisation technology to deliver an experience unique to each user is not new. Amazon has been doing it for years, and a number of movie rental sites have tried it. Most of these types of personalisation software rely on your behavioral pattern to make recommendations – there’s no reason why this couldn’t be done with digital TV. Would people by willing to pay for it is another question that needs to be answered.”
“Service providers must embrace new trends such as the emergence of user generated content and find a way to include this into their TV offerings. Portal applications that reach out to web based content for photo albums and video clips are a prime example of this,” Baker adds. “It’s clear that the explosion in content over the last few years means that audiences are crying out for an increasingly personal touch when it comes to TV. Users will be able to receive content anytime, anywhere, choose what is most relevant to them, and even create and upload their own TV content, while content providers and advertisers will be able to tailor their offerings more specifically to the viewer.”
About ANT Software Limited
ANT plc (www.antplc.com) is the leading provider of client software solutions and services to the digital media industry. It develops open-standards-based client software and applications to enable operators to exploit digital media across a broad range of consumer devices from TV’s set-top boxes and DVD players, to portable media devices such as mobile phones and personal media players, regardless of content delivery platform.
ANT enables media driven organisations to quickly create and roll-out innovative and successful applications and TV services on any consumer device, enabling operators to attract new subscribers, reduce churn and increase average revenue per user.
ANT’s software has been extensively deployed by customers throughout the world including Cisco, Chunghwa Telecom, Foxconn, France Telecom, Humax, LG/Nortel, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, SaskTel, Telecom Italia and Thomson.
ANT plc's shares are listed on AIM, a London Stock Exchange regulated market, under the ticker ANTP (Reuters: ANTP.L, Bloomberg: ANTP.LN).
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