Personalized TV aims to be ultimate VCR
Digital, Web services vie to offer choices
Some, such as TiVo and Replay TV, promise to make it easier to manage your viewing options. Others, such as Broadcast.com and FasTV, want to turn your computer into an all-purpose entertainment center, combining film or TV software with the rest of the usual computer hardware. Still others, such as IXL's MoreTV prototype, combine these goals into a TV-net service with a simplified remote.
All offer digital compatibility with the next wave of televisions. But all also raise some difficult questions, such as the effect on advertisers and ratings providers. The eventual aim of the personalized television systems is to offer the viewer unlimited choices of TV viewing options.
Broadcast.com
Despite its somewhat limited menu of offerings and a few technical glitches, such as its live Victoria's Secret fashion show that got so much attention it temporarily crashed the site, Broadcast.com is in the forefront of the TV-Web convergence. It allows the computer user in an L.A. office to listen to the live radio broadcast of WWOZ in New Orleans (or dozens of other stations). With streaming video, a homesick New Yorker in Texas can watch WABC-TV's Gotham newscast and other locally produced programming. Miscellaneous programming, such as vintage episodes of "The Lucy Show" are also available. And, thanks to a recently inked deal with film indie Trimark, anyone anywhere can watch "Warlock" at any time (or any one of about 50 films from the company's library).
Broadcast.com started with mostly live events, such as concerts, as well as audio such as CD previews and audio books. But president-CEO Mark Cuban, who has said, "We're in the digital distribution business," is hungry for content, and the more high profile, the better. He'd be glad to have today's TV hits, although he realizes network affiliates might not be too happy about that. For now, he's looking for quantity over quality and says Broadcast.com is more like a library than its own network, "like the world's largest video store."
There are a few hurdles to Broadcast.com's advance. With film deals, at least for now, there is the issue of previously sold rights (that's why the Trimark deal includes only about 11% of the indie's library). Also, the TV networks and cable have real concerns about their ratings, if the same show is available with the click of a mouse at the viewer's convenience.
FasTV.com
FasTV.com is similar to Broadcast.com, but without the live simulcasts. Making its consumer market debut this month, FasTV offers 100% searchable video clips on a wide range of topics: news, weather, business, entertainment, etc. FasTV converts TV programming into online digitally indexed files ranging from 30 seconds to four minutes and allows the user to search for a keyword or phrase that brings up related clips.
FasTV president William Swegles says the service has "created a new market for film and video rights holders" and gives them an opportunity to drive Internet-based revenues and expand brand-relationships. Among content providers already signed up are CNN, PBS' Morning Business Report, some of the major studios and some indie video and TV producers. The Web site credits all clips to the provider and offers a transcript alongside the clip as well.
TiVo
It's personable personal TV: TiVo's cute, smiling-TV logo, with engagingly floppy antennae (designed by Pittard Sullivan), signals the company's goal: to make the TV your friend.
With 40 hours of digital recording capacity in a set-top box, TiVo promises to retain the ease of TV viewing and increase the consumer's options and satisfaction. If you like "Friends" but don't always get home in time to watch it, tell TiVo; it will record every episode of the series all season long. Phone rings just as Mulder and Scully open that door? TiVo lets you pause the live broadcast and pick up where you left off; you also can fast-forward and catch up with the action again. Miss that great slam-dunk, or disagree with a strike call? TiVo offers an instant-replay capability, so you can see a play again and again.
TiVo also gets to know its owner. As you watch a show, TiVo puts up an onscreen prompt that asks what you think of it. The TiVo remote has a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button; you can push each up to three times per show to indicate how much you like or dislike a show. TiVo keeps track of your preferences and compiles a menu of suggested programming. For instance, if you like "Live With Regis & Kathie Lee," TiVo might suggest "Donny & Marie."
Stacy Jolna, VP programming and network relations, says advertisers have nothing to fear from TiVo. The set-top box is hooked up to a server in the home office and relays anonymous viewing data that can help advertisers better target their ads. Also, because "TiVo is all about time-shifting," Jolna says, it creates "extra promotional time that doesn't really exist." An advertiser or network could insert a promo in front of each of those "Friends" episodes you recorded, using time that's not part of the broadcast sked, with the added bonus of highly targeted marketing.
TiVo already has inked deals with HBO, Showtime, E! Entertainment Television and the Weather Channel to offer showcases of those services' programming. It also plans to set up "Couch Commerce" -- no explanation needed.
Replay TV
Replay Networks' VP business development, Michael Kornet, also stresses the ease of use of his system. Similar to TiVo, Replay uses a set-top box and offers one-button recording of one show or an entire season's worth. Replay offers viewers an electronic programming guide, in the scrolling grid format familiar from cable barker channels, from which they can select shows to watch or record. It also creates Replay Zones, themed channels that group together programming with a certain theme. The Zones can be by genre or, by using an offscreen keyboard, the consumer can input specific requests, such as an actor or director, or a topic like geology.
Kornet thinks advertisers will adjust to new technology such as Replay's (which also offers a button that skips commercials during playback). He suggests they may return to the days of sponsored programs, or perhaps turn to a longer, informercial-style ad about a product rather than ads scattered through a program.
MoreTV
The prototype user interface MoreTV, commissioned from IXL by Tele-Communications Inc., offers content via the Internet that's designed for TV. Ken Papagan, senior VP of the broadband and enhanced TV group at IXL, says, "The Internet is not a destination; it's a transportation system to TV." The name, Papagan explains, comes from the notion that the viewer doesn't want to work; he just wants more TV.
With a simple remote control and intuitive learning process, the consumer sees the 500-channel universe broken down into genres, in a manner resembling the Dewey Decimal system: All channels grouped under the 100s might be movie channels, while the 200s are news and the 300s are kids shows. Each group has its own barker channel, with easy access from there to a specific program. Papagan describes it as "targeted channel-surfing."
With the push of a button, the viewer can go direct from a show to an Internet interface that still looks like television; it may be a link from Oprah to Amazon.com to order her book club tome, or a link from a cooking show to a printable recipe or to Kraft's Web site for related food items. MoreTV also plans to offer interactive shopping and access to e-mail and, potentially, interactive commercials.
