A few months ago I wrote a piece about internet content making its way to the TV screen. Not in a Windows Media Center kind of way, but a way that is done from the point of view of the  television industry. It’s now time for the other big event of the braodcasting calendar, NAB in Las Vegas, which unfortunately, I’ll not be attending. There was however, a chance to see some of the things that will be on display there at the IPTV World Forum in London last month. Once again, for a show that is about using internet technology, there was disappointingly little about internet content to see. But here’s a run down of what some of the TV tech companies are doing (or pretending to do) with social media.

Accedo: This is more of an update from what they showed me at IBC, essentially, they’ve taken on the ‘app’ model for Facebook and Twitter so that you can view a cutdown version of these applications as a sidebar during your normal TV watching. In the same way that online applications such as thwirl and digsby recognise that some things need to be kept in the background while you’re focusing on your main task, Accedo will sit completely unassumingly until you want to share what you’re doing with your network. It also integrates with your EPG, so that just using the coloured remote buttons, you can update what you’re watching. Neat, look:

SeaChange: as a previous client of mine, I was curious to know what this middleware provider was up to in the world of web content.  They’re pimping Affinity, a social networking engine for video-on-demand, essentially a tool that allows you to make and take recommendations for stuff in a VOD library, the idea being that people will discover pay-per-view content that they might not normally find (= extra revenue for operator). The problem I have with this is that it seems that the recommendations are done via collaborative filtering (i.e. you share what you like with your friends and vice versa), which means that the solution is only good when your friends like the same stuff as you AND they happen to have an Affinity enabled TV service. If it was linked to a social network’s API, there would be a lot more value from this and it wouldn’t necessitate the latter point.

Ericcson: Yes they do TV, although apparently they don’t do web design so well. They were showing last.fm on TV – not the actual videos, but essentially, it’s an ‘app’ built for playing music through your TV when you get very bored of adverts for ringtones on VH1. I’m not entirely sure where it sits in the network because they don’t seem to be talking about it in any of their literature or website, which is a shame. I liked the demo though, it looks pretty slick and my TV has better sound quality than my PC, so I’m all for taking this particular service to the living room in another way (I currently use the last.fm app on my iPod quite frequently for that type of thing. Pic below:

CompleteTV: Now I have to say I’m more than a little disappointed with these guys. Despite having a fairly nice booth at IPTVWF, and splashing the YouTube Logo across it a couple of times, looking at their site, I fail to see how that was any more than lip service to online media making its way to the TV in any genuine form. Fear of content producers… perhaps. Now, that might sound harsh, but here’s the thing… CompleteTV makes boxes – not a great start… boxes for the consumer (even worse, since most of this stuff will migrate to the network in 3-4 years), which, with the whole wealth of social media goodness out there can do all this: “browse the internet and act as an email/instant messaging client”. Wow. I’m hugely underwhelmed, mind you, they’re way above Ericsson on the web design front.

Finally I wanted to quote a great article from the March/April issue of Future Media, in which Jonathan Webdale has interviewed Anthony Rose, one of the big cheeses behind the iPlayer, who said that “2007 was the year the BBC chose what you watched, 2008 was the year viewers chose what they watched and 2009 would be the year your friends choose what you watch.” As long as it’s not my Mistresses-watching colleagues choosing, I’m keen to see how it goes. It’s a great article (print only so far) which talks a lot more about TV going into social media (rather than what I’ve written here) so go read it now.

I’ve spent much of the week blogging about pre-CES and CES announcements related to bringing the Internet to the TV. I’ve seen many of the things I was expecting: more Netflix in more devices, Blockbuster announcing it would connect to the TV, in short, big names making big plays to get to IP-delivered video and interactive content to the TV screen instead of the PC monitor.

In one of my posts earlier this week, I wrote:

Soon, there won’t be a TV maker who doesn’t offer this connectivity; that includes Vizio, in my opinion, who will clearly see the writing on the wall here. In fact, if Vizio announces something innovative early, it could really maintain its growth position in the US market.  (from Samsung Adds Yahoo! Widgets to its TVs).

As if in fulfillment of my wishes, Vizio yesterday announced exactly that. What makes the announcement worthy of a post is that Vizio not only added one or two things, it added the whole boatload. In fact, when the CES dust settles, we’ll probably find Vizio — a relative newcomer to the TV market and certainly a newcomer to the Connected TV business — will hold the title as the maker of the most connected TV. Here’s a list of partners Vizio is incorporating: Accedo (for games), Adobe, Amazon VOD, Blockbuster VOD, Netflix (so last year by now), Pandora, Rhapsody, and the Yahoo TV Widget Engine I wrote about this morning, which means Vizio will have many more content plays beyond this list relatively soon.   

Vizio is the TV maker to watch as of this moment.

Even the fact that I can no longer call them just a TV maker (they announced a $200 Blu-ray player yesterday as well) is evidence that Vizio is ready to make this recessionary year a big one for the company. And they’re in a good position to do so: value-priced and distributed through value-oriented channels, Vizio can provide high-tech at low cost without having to swallow any pride.

Vizio earns my attention because they are the first to really bring a “many devices, many services” model to the TV. This is something I have written about a lot lately, as I have been predicting it for the past year and have started to see it come to fruition. For example, last year in a speech to a 100 people, I walked them through a 2009-and-beyond TV scenario in which the new TV you bring home literally asks you which services you already subscribe to and immediately connects you to them. By bringing Amazon, Blockbuster, and Netflix into the same TV, Vizio is making my scenario real. The only thing it lacks from my scenario is a pleasing computer voice to help you navigate your many options. And I was just kidding about that part anyway.

As soon as another TV maker catches up to Vizio, my “many devices, many services” model will be complete. Now, the only thing all of these announcements are missing that I explicitly asked for is…Hulu. Add Hulu to this Vizio solution and you almost don’t need cable. Almost. But I’ll save that for another CES post after I meet with Sezmi… TTFN.

–Partners with Paramount for Interactive TV Games
–Partnership with Ekioh Enables Support for SVG Technology
–Launches “Web 2.0″ Applications at IBC
–Launches ITV Games on Sharp AQUOS Net TV Sets

Accedo Broadband, an aggregator and distributor of interactive TV
applications and content for IPTV and broadband-connected consumer
electronics devices (note: the company, which was founded by telecom
and media entrepreneurs, Michael Lantz and Fredrik Andersson, offers
a range of applications, including game, quiz, puzzle, video-art,
karaoke, weather, communications and user-generated content apps; it
has deals in place to provide games packages to a line-up of customers
that includes BT, Inuk, and PCCW), has generated a fair amount of
news over the past few weeks:

• The company has teamed with Paramount Digital Entertainment to
  develop interactive TV games based on the Paramount Pictures
  properties, “Top Gun” and “Saturday Night Fever.” According to the
  companies, the games will be deployed on Accedo’s Funspot game
  channels on IPTV platforms in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, China,
  India and Malaysia, and the deployments will represent the first time
  that Hollywood-branded games have been available to IPTV customers
  in Asia. “We are excited about developing our relationship with
  Paramount Digital Entertainment,” Mark Adams, Accedo’s VP of
  business development for Asia, said in a prepared statement. “They
  clearly see the huge potential of telco-TV games and newer platforms.
  We have the ability to deliver innovative game concepts to demanding
  subscribers in Asia, while they have a library of classic movie brands
  with timeless appeal across all demographic groups.”

• The company says that, as a result of a new partnership with Ekioh, a
  UK-based developer of embedded UI engines, the Accedo Application
  Portfolio will now support the new Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
  technology. According to Accedo, SVG is widely seen as the “natural
  successor” to current browser technologies, and makes it possible to
  overcome the challenge of creating HD user services for IPTV, where it
  says guaranteeing a good user experience, in terms of performance and
  responsiveness, is often a problem. “Ekioh has managed to build a
  high-performance SVG engine that renders visually stunning and
  responsive UI’s and graphics at impressive speeds,” Accedo CEO,
  Michael Lantz, said in a prepared statement. “This new engine is
  outperforming current browser-based technology by far.” Added Ekioh
  CEO, Piers Wombwell: “Partnering with Accedo Broadband will give
  our customers access to the leading interactive application portfolio for
  IPTV. We are happy as this will reduce the time to market for them to
  deploy attractive SVG content and applications.” Accedo showcased a
  number of new applications that use SVG technology in its booth at the
  IBC show in Amsterdam earlier this month.

• The company also used the IBC show to announce that it is now
  offering a range of applications with “Web 2.0″ functionality (“Web
  2.0″ being a catch-all phrase for services that feature user-interaction,
  social networking and user-generated content) as part of its Accedo
  Application Portfolio offering. “The TV medium is traditionally a
  broadcast medium with all users getting the same content,” Accedo’s
  Lantz said in a prepared statement. “With IPTV technology, each end-
  user can interact directly and personally with channels or services,
  similar to the standard Web. The future of IPTV is about bringing new
  services and applications to the TV viewer. Accedo is all about the new
  TV experience, and by offering these new applications to the market,
  we take another step towards the future living room.” Accedo says that
  it is now offering a framework for IPTV applications that can connect
  to both in-house-operated and third-party Web 2.0 services, thus
  bringing a range of Internet content and functionality to the TV. It says
  that Web 2.0 functionality will be available to all its customers, starting
  in the fourth quarter.

  

• The company has launched its Funspot casual games service on Sharp
  AQUOS Net-equipped television sets in the US. The games, which
  feature HD graphics and are designed to be operated with a remote
  control, include arcade, puzzle, board, strategy, card and quiz games.
  “Funspot from Accedo is a very powerful proposition for interactive
  casual games in front of the TV,” Accedo’s Lantz said in a prepared
  statement. “We will continue to expand and develop the service
  offering from the initial launch based on user demand and behavior.
  The flexibility and convenience of the user experience delivered by the
  AQUOS Net platform are ideal for a seamless integration with
  Accedo’s Funspot gaming solution. The close integration of widget
  functionality and possibilities for both full-screen and half-screen
  execution show Sharp’s deep understanding for interactivity in the
  future living room.” AQUOS Net, which launched in North America
  last January, is a service that offers custom Web-based content and
  real-time customer support on Sharp AQUOS SE94U television sets. It
  is accessed via the sets’ Ethernet jack and allows display of
  Internet-sourced content in full-screen and split-screen modes.

• The company has named Lars Bentsson, former CEO of IPTV set-top
  box manufacturer, Kreatel, and managing director of Motorola’s IPTV
  Open Systems unit, to its board of directors. Bengtsson–who
  presumably has significant expertise in the IPTV space–will also serve
  as a senior advisor to Accedo’s management. “Companies like Accedo
  Broadband are key for innovation and service development in the
  emerging IPTV industry,” Bengtsson said in a prepared statement.
  “Accedo’s rapid growth into a global provider of IPTV content and
  services is impressive and I’m excited about joining the board to
  strengthen the company’s growth in the coming years.”

Since my last post was a little on the negative side, it’s time to lighten things up and talk about some of the sool stuff that was on show at IBC. So here’s a run down of my picks of the show:

Accedo: These guys (from Sweden) put stuff on your TV that isn’t TV content – usually games and interactive services – but at IBC, they were demoing a service wher social media applications such as YouTube, facebook and flickr to the TV screen. While it can be argued that things like Windows Media Centre do that already, Accedo’s slant is that they’re not simply replicating the web experience, but actually optimising the application for the TV platform. From what I’ve seen, this really comes to life for media heavy apps like Flickr, where you can present high quality slideshows on the big screen.

However, for some of the more communication based web-apps, you’d want to combine the TV experience with the online experience. Inuk Networks, the company behind student IPTV service Freewire used the show to talk about what they call “a truly converged triple-play IPTV service incorporating television, voice and PC applications within one interactive interface” Round the corner, expect to see “Lewis is watching Prison Break” as an automated Facebook status update, and things like updating your twitter feed or sending social network messages from within your TV’s EPG. Inuk’s Nick Ruczaj also told me that they’re planning to open up the Freewire API to let folks build their own widgets which will add interaction to the viewing experience. in my opinion, IPTV apps would be a great place for budding developers looking to get a foothold in the world of media convergence.

Speaking of which, Qualcomm had some interesting concept demos which looked at using 3G blended with its MediaFLO technology to get the Inuk-esque interactivity on mobile phones. It was nice to watch, and while it’s a concept at present, I think the issue here is going to be screen real estate. Only devices like the iPhone are really going to be able to deal with that much information on screen in a useable way. But with plenty of device manufacturers replicating the big screen interface, it won’t be long before concepts become reality.