Looking ahead

Bringing widgets to TV

The TV viewing experience is changing – from consumers’ habits to the amount of information and content on offer. Thanks to increasing numbers of channels and video on demand and the rise in online content consumption, consumers can enjoy a richer experience. But they’re often frustrated by a lack of integration between different content platforms and the huge and varied amount of information available.

Not only is there a vast amount of content available, it’s not all in one place. Some of it is viewed on the TV, some on the PC or a laptop, some even on mobiles. The younger generation, in particular, is spending more time on the computer than in front of the traditional TV. This allows us to make confident predictions about future viewing habits.

The general consensus is that there is an increasing demand for all content to be available across different platforms. But it needs to be of the same high standard as on the original viewing device, and easily accessible. While convergence helps with this, leading to a ‘modern’ TV experience, it’s also important to make it an effortless experience for the consumer. With so much content out there, users can get lost in the choices available to them – meaning they, and operators, ultimately miss out.

This is where widgets can help.

What is a widget?

A widget is a small, easy-to-forward bundle of software that lets users play with graphics and information online. A simple application, it provides data that’s relevant to users, creating a target and making them more likely to return to a certain website/content of interest. Having originated on the internet to create a presence of brands and services, such as with social networking sites Facebook and Bebo, it’s now also being used to drive traffic to websites with syndicated content and functionality from third-party providers.

Media consumption is also becoming more complex for end users and communication tools are increasingly interlinked with the internet. Consumers want one profile which they can access across multiple devices. The challenge comes when this profile needs to be adapted and customised to each device – because of differing screen sizes and streaming capabilities, for instance. Having a social and personalised profile accessible across different viewing platforms – laptops, phones, the internet – is key to providing a next-generation user experience.

Combining TV with the internet

Like widgets on the web, widgets can also be integrated into the television experience to access internet-based content directly from the TV. We’ve all seen the ‘TV of the future’ that’s on our fridge or our microwave, and Microsoft itself was predicting the TV cum-computer-cum-phone-cum-oven timer which would integrate all aspects of communications and media entertainment consumption.

According to research from Forrester last July (2008), around 85 million European households have a broadband internet connection. Given the trend towards viewing online content, it’s obvious that there’s a gap in the market to allow consumers to consume content on their widescreen TV in the comfort of their own lounge.

A survey from Park Associates in 2008 also showed that 33% of US broadband households were asking for web-enhanced TV widgets, for which half of those surveyed said they were willing to pay for this either through additional hardware or a new subscription. Again, this creates new business opportunities for all concerned.

Personalising the TV experience

While it’s often argued that there’s a threat to traditional TV viewing, operators are also seeking the new opportunities that these changing viewing habits offer. Working with technology providers such as Nagravision helps with this given its network-agnostic approach. Consumers don’t care where the content comes from – whether via cable or satellite – they just want good quality content available on multiple devices at a reasonable price. Converging these platforms and ensuring that the content is still protected means that operators can then provide a tailored, personalised experience to each user.

Creating individual profiles and using widgets to recommend content for a personalised experience is key to building links between traditional and newer viewing habits. The best web techniques are being adapted to enhance the TV experience, closely followed by integrating web services for next-generation content consumption.

This ties in with the general trend we’re seeing to do with ‘web presence’ – where applications are ported onto the relevant device the consumer is using, whether it’s the PC, laptop or mobile phone. Doing the same with the TV creates a better user experience for the viewer, ties operators in with the IP crowd and creates additional revenues – while helping to retain existing subscribers.

Benefits for operators

Operators stand to gain much from embracing widgets as the starting point for internet-enabled TVs. These include new subscribers, retention of existing ones, creating TV 2.0 and exploiting internet social networks and content for viral promotions. And, importantly, they can incorporate internet advertising revenues where traditional broadcast media revenues are declining.

In addition, widgets create a smart way of integrating operators’ recommendations for pay-TV content. They offer a better way of really knowing your viewers and building new services around live monitoring data. They also allow operators to become more reactive and compete better with internet and over-the-top services.

What this means for us

Technology and solutions partners need to embrace the importance of widgets to incorporate these within set-top boxes, conditional access cards and more. Yahoo and brands such as Philips, Sony and Samsung are already working towards providing access to interactive services for the end user.

Alongside some lead customers Nagravision is now working towards creating the next generation of user interfaces which will integrate a widget engine feature.

We’re looking at the widget engine from two angles – the middleware level and the back end. At the middleware level, high quality interfaces on the internet nowadays have led to an ever higher expectation for television-based widgets from a navigation and graphics point of view. On the back end, widgets help reinforce business systems such as service delivery platform (SDP) as they integrate new features to support services generated directly from the internet.

Summing up

Widgets are just one step towards providing a personalised, social media-friendly and unified viewing experience which offers traditional broadcast, cable and pay TV, web access, games, media entertainment and more. Consumers are already demanding ever-better services and higher-quality offerings when it comes to entertainment. This is known as the ‘iPhone’ effect – they expect a next-generation experience across all facets of life.

Given the relative importance the TV plays in living rooms around the world, all players involved need to embrace the changes that are happening to make sure they remain competitive and ‘in the game’. This means eventually bringing the internet and all its services to the TV.