TVissimo | Internet and Television Convergence Discussion Blog

Broadcast TV Goes Mobile

The New York Times recently reported on a trend, Local TV for Devices on the Move. “Beginning in April, eight television stations in Washington, D.C., will broadcast a signal for a new class of devices that can show programming, even in a car at high speed. In all, 30 stations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington have installed the necessary equipment, at a cost of $75,000 to $150,000.”

This is different than Web TV on mobile devices. This is broadcast TV on a mobile device.   The device is currently, for lack of a more marketable name, as “ATSC Mobile DTV Standard.” The Timnes writes that first devices will become available in April. They will include a $249 TV-DVD player from LG. There is also a $120 device cigarette box size device from Valups, a Korean set-top box maker, that retransmits a mobile signal to an iPhone, iPod or BlackBerry over Wi-Fi. There is also PC dongles and set-top boxes for automobiles from iMovee and a $149 iPhone/iPod mobile TV cradle from Cydle. The race is on.

The Mobile DTV standard also provides two-way communication. When viewing an ad, you can push a button to see more information or have it sent by e-mail. The system can also be used for voting, polling and audience measurement. Mobile TV devices with GPS function could also feed location-specific ads so that, for example, an ad for a restaurant would appear only to someone nearby.

Things are moving quickly in this niche. 

Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV? – Tim Dillard

Social Media is moving into television on an increasing basis. This is the theme of a post by Tim Dillard on TheNextWeb: Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV?.  For example, fans of certain TV shows from different time zones are saving the latest episodes of their favorite shows and then arranging common viewing times with their friends to watch the shows whilst discussing the action together on Skype,

The shows themselves are also launching efforts, sometimes with mixed results. In the UK, high profile post-apocalypse drama, BBC’s ‘Survivors’, launched with stream of tweets from ’survivors’. They were supposedly trying to get messages out to a world in which most of the population had been wiped out by a mystery virus. However, the effort did not last.

It seems the most successful efforts so far are user generated. For example, with Twitter, real-time conversations about TV shows at the shows are broadcast live are linked together through the use of hashtags. 

Clicker Brings You What’s On Online

Clicker is a search service to find what is available in video on the Web. There motto is “What’s On Online.”  At the site you are greeted with a simple Google style search filed as well as links to what’s new, what’s hot, recommended and your playlist if you have signed up for the premium service. The basic features are free. You can search by show or by topic. Clicker indexes television shows, movies, music videos, and original web content. 

 Clicker recently received $11 million in expanded venture capital funding. The series B round was led by Jafco Ventures. Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures also participated. The company has now raised approximately $19 million since its launch in January 2009. The site does not provide video itself. It links you to the growing amount of content that others are producing. The Clicker catalog now includes more than 600,000 episodes from 10,000 shows. It lists those titles in more than 14,000 categories.

Jeremy Scott provides a nice Clicker review at ReelSEO,  Clicker Wants To Be Your Web TV Search Engine – They’re Mine. He writes that Clicker solved his frustration in finding out what is on the Web after he dropped cable. Jeremy gives the example of searcing for his favorite show, Lost. It “reveals a host of options.  The first thing you’ll notice are some brief stats:  there are apparently 129 episodes of Lost available online for free, with another 86 available for purchase.”  Plus there was a lot of related content on the same theme.

This is a nice discovery and one that will make Web video content much more attractive to me. It is the same concept that led to the design of TVissimo to address the issue of what is on in broadcast television and our listing of selected Web video sites such as Hulu. It will be interesting to see how Clicker evolve as the Web and broadcast TV continue to converge. 

YouTube Tries to Extend Time on Site

The New York Times had an interesting article, YouTube’s Quest to Suggest More, that covered their goal to have people stay longer on the site which would increase ad revenue. Compared to other Web sites with similar content (or really almost any Web site) they are way ahead. But compared to that other channel for viewing content, televsion, they are way behind. Users spend an average of 15 minutes a day on the site and they spend about five hours in front of the television.

To increase time spent on YouTube Hunter Walk leads a team of about a dozen engineers, designers and project managers who are fine-tuning YouTube to users what they want, even when users aren’t quite sure what they really want. This is where discovery comes in. One way is to select the 10-15 most appealing videos for a specific user from their library of over 100 million.

The process starts with search. The NYT reported that in November, Americans typed some 3.8 billion search queries on YouTube, more than on any search engine other than Google, according to comScore, a market researcher. But there is a difference. While Google queries tend to be very specific, users often come to YouTube with requests as vague as “funny videos.” This is where discovery can help by providing a range of results that are not simply literal matches.

One challenge is when to anticipate the user might be getting tried of their original topic and proactively offer related content to keep them on site.  One way to provide good options suggesting videos that users may want to watch based on prior viewing before, or on what others with similar tastes have enjoyed. The effort requires data-mining techniques similar to those used by and Amazon to make music or book recommendations.

Demand for TV and Web Convergence on the Rise

Rob Paterson recently wrote about TV and Radio and the web on the Fats Forward blog. He reported some interesting survey data. The desire to hook up their TV to the Web is rising in US Internet users. In 2009, the percentage of US interest users that would like to hook up their TV to the Web:  ages 14-26 – 74%,, ages 27-43 – 71%, ages, 44-62 – 59%, and ages 63-75 – 46%. In talking with a number of people in their 20s and 30s, they say that they only watch TV in the OnDemand mode. I have tried this and it was a great way to watch and tape the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert.

Rob wrote that he has cancelled his cable access and has been connecting directly to the web for 2 months now. He writes that the reasons for doing this are: greater control, , no ads, no paying for unwanted content, and plenty of good Web TV content. Also the the pathways there – iTunes, Veoh, YouTube are good enough and getting better. He uses a simple mini connector on his MacBook to link to his TV set and uses the screen management feature to synch the screens. I can do the same on one of my TV sets, the one I purchased in 2009. Rob adds that in 2010 even these simple technical hurdles will go away.

Rob predicts that in 2011 the Web will be the channel for TV. Others have said it will happen in 2010. For example, eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey writes in his 2010 Predictions Round-Up, “The Consumer Electronics Show in early 2010 will usher in TVs with direct Internet connectivity, or with on-screen access to content portals such as YouTube, Blockbuster and Netflix. As online video becomes intertwined with the living-room TV experience, download and streaming services will take on a prominent role in the home entertainment ecosystem.”

I am looking forward to this as I watch Van Morrison’s live performance of Astral Weeks on my TV through DVD. It should only get better. 

TV Rose in Popularity in 2009

Television does not seem to be suffering the same way as the newspaper,  its older mainstream media cousin. Deloitte’s 2009 “State of the Media Democracy” survey reports a 26 percent increase in the Americans choosing TV as their favorite type of media compared to the previous year. This is likely influenced by the recession. More than 70 percent of those surveyed rank watching TV in their top three favorite media activities. When ranked alongside activities such as surfing the Web, listening to music or reading, 34 percent of consumers place it at the top. This is a substantial increase from last year and more than double those selecting the number two choice, the Web, which came in at 14 percent. 

When watching their favorite TV shows, 86 percent of respondents prefer watching on their television set, either live, via their DVR/TiVo, or using an “On Demand” feature.  While less than 10 percent of Americans say they prefer watching the same content online, a growing number of consumers are using online platforms to watch their favorite TV shows. 

Consumers are watching close to 18 hours of television programming on their home TV in a typical seven day week — up notably from less than 16 hours last year. Looking at the interest in TV – Web convergence, 65 percent of respondents would like to be able to easily connect their home TV to the Internet so that they can view videos or downloaded content. This is a significant trend that has gained strength over the last three years. Of course, the reverse could occur with more TV on computers.  A move in this direction would allow for more search and data mining capabilities. 

The report also looked at advertising. TV still holds strong here with 83 percent of consumers identifying TV advertising as one of the top three media with the most impact on their buying decisions.  In the online world, over half of all U.S. consumers believe that online customer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than any other type of online advertising, and 51 percent have purchased products based on an online recommendation. In addition, 24 percent of U.S. consumers would like to have an online service that recommends a product based on other consumers’ preferences.

Boxee Brings Us a Set-Top Box

Boxee is software that lets you watch media from the internet or your local hard disk. VentureBeat reported in, 2010’s hottest contenders: 8 products to watch, that it announced that it will sell a set-top box. It went on to write that as devices on which TV can be seen will proliferate, Boxee can potentially expand into not just your home TV, but also cell phone, mobile TV, and car TV. This is more likely because Boxee is primarily a software solution unlike some of its competitors. If Boxee can create a compelling solution for these other platforms, and strike partnerships with content producers and hardware vendors, it can become the central platform for the internet TV. There are a lot of ifs here but it more likely that the Nets making the playoffs.

A second post, 3 reasons TV is about to get a facelift, that when Boxee delivers its promised box, you will “able to watch MTV Music, Youtube, CNN, MLB.com, and several other internet “channels” seamlessly on my TV. That’s a game changer.” It certainly seems so. I might go get one for my biggest screen TV. . 

Sagan Predicts TV Survival Means Hyper-Local Online Video

The MediaPost recently reported that Akamai Technologies CEO Paul Sagan warns that television is about to experience the equivalent of the Big Bang, Akamai Technologies facilitates more than one-fifth of the world's Web traffic so they have a good view on the subject. What will cause this transformation? The article states that, “the ability to match high-def TV picture quality with Internet interactivity is creating a sea change for online video that will begin rippling through the television industry in 2010. Only TV station owners that leap to the new arena, playing the strength of their hyper-local connections, will survive.”

I am reminded that is a past transformation when the telegraph appeared, the news outlets of the day came together to form the Associated Press to capitalize on the new technology and share its promise.  It does not seem that a similar event will happen here. Now it is everyone for themselves.

Traditional television content producers and distributors that are among Akamai's deep client base are in peril according to Sagan. The audiences for this content are rapidly moving to the Web. The article goes on to report that, “too many broadcasters are obsessing about cannibalizing their content instead of using the efficiency and convenience of interactivity to expand their local power base. While increasing numbers of TV stations are going online with real-time and on-demand local news, sports and other live events, they do not have the interactive online advertising in place to fully monetize their content.”

This sounds like what happen to the Rocky Mountain News.  There is a way out. Take advantage of the ability of the Web to address the long tail of specialized content.  The large players are global and generic. Sagan says that “the window is still open for broadcasters to create long- and short-form programming that -- when expertly presented and searchable -- can be monetized and generate a new audience and new revenues.”

However making effective use of interactive advertising is essential for hyperlocal online broadcasting to become a viable business.  They are not there yet but must make the transformation to realize this opportunity. The increased complexity of programming could benefit from a comprehensive television search capability such as TVissimo. 

More Predictions on TV and the Web for 2010

Peter Cashmore, CEO of the popular analyst site, Mashable, recently shared his 10 Web trends to watch in 2010 with CNN. One of the ten concerned, Internet TV and movies. Peter predicted:

“Is 2010 the year the majority of our television starts coming to us via the Internet? There's certainly more activity here than at any other time: Among the early-adopter set, Hulu, Boxee, Apple TV and Netflix's Roku box lead the field."

Hulu in particular has sustained remarkable growth this year, while the movie studios are getting on board with the launch of Epix, a Hulu for films.”

This is consistent with Steve Rubel’s predictions for 2010 in Forbes we covered last week. Tvissimo is designed to work well in this environment and provides content information on Hulu and other web providers. 

Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV?

This is the time of year for predictions and Steve Rubel predicts that television will integrate social media (see: What To Watch In 2010: Social TV). Television has always been a focal point for conversations. It is a common experience that people often like to discuss. New media work often get a great start when they offer new ways to do this we have been doing all along.  So far social media and television have been largely separate e. People certain talk about TV on the Web and through social media but the is discussion has not been integrated into the TV set itself. Now this will change as I have been discussing on this blog from time to time.

Oprah is getting in on it so we know it is big.  There will be the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey launching January 2011. This goes along with her departure from traditional TV. OWN is betting that the hundreds of thousands of viewers that have participated in Oprah's Webcasts will partake in other social experiences. And that social TV, more so than the Web, "could provide the right vehicle for advertisers who want to combine the reach and audio-visual power of television with the engagement and two-way dialogue offered by social media," said Robert Tercek, president of digital media for OWN quoted by Rubel.

Mark Kroese, general manager in the advertising business group of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, believes that Oprah's departure from network TV is a sign of the times. Rubel quotes him. "The lines between television, video and gaming are beginning to blur," wrote Kroese on Microsoft's blog. "When the entertainment history books are written, and the long, inexorable decline of The Big Four (networks) is a well-documented Harvard Business School case, I think we're going to look at the creation of OWN as the tipping point. And I predict 2010 will be the year that most major brand advertisers shift substantial portions of their budgets toward more targeted, measurable, engaging and accountable mediums."

It will not just be traditional television sets that will be more social. The gamers are getting involved. In October, XBox Live updated the platform to pull in users' Facebook and Twitter streams. Rubel writes that already, it's a hit. Microsoft last month said more than 2 million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook.  Next we may have social refrigerators where we can discuss what to cook for tonight, There are already social scales that lets us share the outcome of these meals (see Tweeting Your Weight - But Not Mine). 

The Race is on for Clickable TV

TV has always been a "push" medium, where its content and advertising is pushed out to its mass audience. With the introduction of Web 2.0 with social media and user-generated content, a major paradigm shift has occurred with the introduced "pull" marketing, where a two-way dialogue allowed users to identify and control the content they found meaningful. Ron Callari writes about the Race for Clickable TV to develop a two way capability for television.

Ron notes that "while the evolution of TV has taken more than 60 years to make this transition, the internet has moved from contextual ads (banner advertising) and behavioral targeting (user clicks) to consumer-generated content in less than a decade."   The is relatively fast for both as it took over 2,000 years to make use of an index in book publishing. Every new media takes time to have people discover its potential but this evolution seems to be getting s with new medium.

Clickable TV will naturally accelerate the convergence of the Web and TV.  Ron writes that BackChannelMedia invented Clickable Television, and according to the founder Michael Kokernak, "other interactive services are being launched by several companies that could complement BackChannelMedia's product and service." Michael also notes that, "Verizon FIOS and DirectTV are both launching TV widgets. Whereas Canoe Ventures, a consortium of the five largest cable companies, also have plans for further research and development in this space."

Clickable TV's developments also taking advantage of the recent US transition from analog to digital-only broadcast. It works like this, when cable companies download BackChannelMedia's software, they can use the data stream to link TV content to web pages/ Then consumers can control through what happens with one click of the button on their remote control.

This will certainly set the stage of Web services to better support TV such as TVissimo's Tv schedule search capabilities.  We look forward to it. 

Will We Get iTunes TV in 2010?

Here is more on 2010 predictions. I am a great fan of Apple. I have a Mac, and iPod, and an iPhone. Now there are rumors about Apple taking its already big iTunes library of TV shows and its Apple TV hardware device and greatly expanding what content they offer and what they can do. Rumors are surfacing in such posts as: 2010’s hottest contenders: 8 products to watch, iTunes turned the music market on its head. Could iTunes TV do the same for TV?, and more aggressively, Apple May Be On The Verge Of Kneecapping The Cable Industry. Finally. This move would certainly enhance the convergence of TV and the Web I have been discussing from time to time.

Venture Beat writes that iTunes TV is “likely to do for TV what iPod did for music industry. Apple, as usual, will bundle the service with its hardware to sell more Apple TVs. In the meantime, better broadband speeds and dedicated hardware will make the internet-TV watching experience comparable to TV quality on cable. Key, however, will be Apple’s ability to get content producers on board.”

There are a number of hurdles here. For now the Apple TV hardware device has limited functionality. I looked at it myself in an Apple store and could not see the reason to get one yet.  However, this could change if Apple was able to bring in more quality content partnerships. They could do what they do with music: break even on the content to sell more hardware. This hardware could be several devices, just as iTunes music is a driver of iPhone sales as well as iPod sales. Apple has the best hardware (outside of TV sets), including computers, iPhones, and iPods to play the TV shows.

I am listing to iTunes on my computer as I type this and play iTunes on my iPhone in my car or whenever else I am away form my computer.  Goodbye CD player. I already have a big screen monitor next to my laptop when I am home. Will these devices also become my TV player?  Of course I would need a lot more memory but that is likely doable. Another option mentioned is to move iTunes(TV) to the cloud.

Once all these delivery issues get worked out, the strategy of cheap content to sell hardware would allow Apple to give better deals to the quality channel provides than the cable companies.  However, expect a knock down drag out fight here. The cable companies have seen what Apple did in the music industry. Hopefully the consumer comes out the winner here and quality content gets good distribution. 2010 will be an interesting year to see what happens in this space.

 

Will Computers Replace TV or Will TV Sets Replace Computers?

As broadcast television and online video continues to converge, will we be watching TV shows on our computer or will we be surfing the net on our TV? Paul Graham places his bets on the computer in the post, Why TV Lost. He writes, “About twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate about what they'd produce when they converged. We now know the answer: computers. It's clear now that even by using the word "convergence" we were giving TV too much credit. This won't be convergence so much as replacement. People may still watch things they call "TV shows," but they'll watch them mostly on computers.”

Paul attributes the victory of computers over television sets to four factors. The first reason is the open market place created by the Web. Anyone can build what they what so innovation and speed is on the side of computers. This make sense so far.

Second, is Moore's Law, which has worked its usual magic on Internet bandwidth allowing for fast access to video. (see my post, Will Phones, TVs, Music Players and Computers Really Converge by 2017 and ReadWriteWeb, In 8 Years, Online Video Consumption Will be Measured in Exabytes). One other winner might actually be the hand held device formerly known as the telephone.

Paul writes that the third reason computers won is piracy. Users prefer it not only because it's free, but because it's more convenient. YouTube has already trained a new generation of viewers (off all ages) that the best place to watch shows is on a computer screen.

He writes that these first three are predictable. The fourth, and less predictable one, is social media. We have already written about social media can enhance television (see for example, Social Media Changing Late Night TV Landscape and More). People like to discuss and share their views on shows and other things than appear on television such as political and sports events. Social media offers the means to do this.

This is also why we designed TVissimo to let you know what is on television through your computer but also to use social media such as twitter and even old fashion email to share your favorites and receive alerts to upcoming shows. We agree with Paul.

He closes with an interesting point. Television shows will change dramatically when they come through the Web. He writes, “On the Internet there's no reason to keep their current format, or even the fact that they have a single format. We'll get whatever the most imaginative people can cook up. That's why the Internet won.”

Television through computers will basically be a new medium. The networks will no longer be gatekeepers but that is just the start. Radio first offered stage shows and television first offered radio shows until the new medium found its own capabilities. I wonder what “television” through computers will do?

Comcast Preparing for TV Web Convergence with NBC Merger

The well-publicized attempt by Comcast to acquire several cable networks (such as CNBC, Bravo, and the USA Network), a leading Hollywood movie studio (Universal Pictures), and a major broadcast television network (NBC) will impact how we watch television.  However, it may be that forces are in play that will drive these changes and Comcast is just positioning itself to between ride the new wave as TV and the Web converge.

Mark Guarino at the Christian Science Monitor recently discussed the move in “Three ways the Comcast-NBC merger could change television.” He outlines these impacts: more content, fewer subscriptions since the new company would have both Hulu and Fancast to access online content. There will also be more ne-stop viewing. Like AT&T, Verizon, and other carriers, Comcast offers bundled deals involving broadband internet, cable, mobile, and landline phones. Finally there will be more online viewing outside the television. Comcast will be able to integrate its cable, Internet, and mobile phone services with its new library of content, allowing subscribers to access a vast number of TV shows and movies in new ways.

All of these impacts reflects the Web – TV convergence and will only provide further support for it. I found the quote from Paul Levinson, a media analyst at Fordham University in New York especially telling, “In the next five years, more people will be seeing ‘The Tonight Show’ online than on their television sets.” The convergence will be so extensive that in 10 or 15 years, we won’t be talking television screen versus online because they’ll all be the same screens.”  This is what we have been saying for some time and it sets the stage for an online TV schedule search engine such as TVissimo.

We look forward to seeing how this unfolds. Rick Munarriz, senior analyst for The Motley Fool noted that some 95 percent of Comcast’s current revenue comes from cable subscriptions – a business model that is “not sustainable,” he says. Targeted ad revenue can come through a search engine such as TVissimo as it knows what people are looking for and obtains a profile to match against these moves. 

The Web overtakes TV to become biggest advertising sector in UK

The UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spend more on internet advertising than on television advertising, with a record £1.75bn online spend in the first six months of the year according to the Guardian.  The paper notes that this change marks a watershed for the embattled TV industry, the leading ad medium in the UK for almost half a century (or perhaps a waterloo). It has taken the internet little more than a decade to become the biggest advertising sector in the UK.

It is somewhat ironic to read this in another embattled media that is being challenged by the Web (see for example, Who killed the Rocky Mountain News? John Temple at WebCom 2009).  The Guardina reports that the Web now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets. I wonder what percentage traditional print newspapers account for.  Also, it would be interesting to see what portion of the Web advertising comes from online versions of newspapers.

Newspapers are starting to participate more in Web ad revenues as a way to stay in business. TV could do the same with online services such as the type of TV schedule search that TVIssimo offers. It can be very targeted to local areas and specialized interests based on what people search for. 

TV Stations Using to Social Media to Attract More Viewers

Many TV news organizations are now on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, trying to connect and woe the participants in these social media sites as reported in TV stations turn to social media to attract viewers. There is concern as more people turn to social media for their news, moving away from TV news. So now TV stations are going to these social media sites to lure back departed views and gain new ones.

In one example, Seattle TV station, KCPQ/13, recently sponsored a Tweetup at the Waterfront Seafood Grill in Seattle Friday night. It brought together hundreds of people who follow "Q13Fox News" and its personalities on Twitter, and who may be followed by "Q13Fox News" in return. A number of the Q13 Fox News personalities attended, and the gathering was a marketer's mix dream.

KCPQ/13’s social media strategy is working as KCPQ/13 as its 10 p.m. newscast regularly draws more viewers in the 25-54 demographic than the 10 p.m. newscast on other Seattle stations: KONG at 10 and the 11 p.m. newscasts on KING, KIRO and KOMO.

They are also taking a sense of community into their broadcasts. Christine Chen, a marketing consulting firm in Redmond, was quoted in the article: "Q13 has embraced the concept of 'sharing' information with their viewers, acknowledging their power and making Gen Y/Millennials seem more like 'peers' who are participants in the information flow rather than 'viewers' who receive the information."

The TV staff are also tweeting and blogging. For example, weekend anchor Bill Wixey's has been tweeting on his battle against cancer. On his own blog, Wixey last April shared this vision of TV in the future: "Using the social media websites and our own, we can easily gauge what stories people are talking about and engage them. (We can) create content initiatives in which we solicit content from the viewers, so they not only provide the stage but also provide the script for the production. It's their show. We are just providing the theater."

I hope channels other than Fox pick up on this idea. I think it will benefit all news coverage to get great user engagement in the selection, creation, production of news. Social media can provide this participation if used creatively.

Online Video Moving Closer to Television?

Here is another angle on the convergence of TV and the Web. The digital marketing firm eConsultancy asks the question, Is online video destined to look like television programming? They quote Brian Stelter in The New York Times today: "News Web sites are starting to look a lot less like newspapers and a lot more like television." Brian also writes that online ads are booming, if they’re attached to a video.

They report that traditional television has been impacted by commercial fast-forwarding, but with online it does not work quite the same way. And as much as people complain about pre-roll ads, they are increasingly watch them instead of skipping through them.

Digital video earned $477 million in revenue in the first half of 2009, which is an increase of 38% from the same time period last year. By online standards this may seem small as online search is estimated to be a $10 billion market this year. However, this growth is good news for struggling media companies. Especially since online views are not poaching traditional TV viewers. During the daytime, online is popular, but at night viewers are switching to television. I think people will switch to online videos as a diversion while working on their computers but will prefer the bigger TV screen for more devoted recreational viewing.

I have written elsewhere that traditional media cannot not simply reproduce itself on new media (see Here is a Creative Blend of Mainstream Media and Social Media and The Misplaced Fear of the Mainstream Media) and this post agrees. It points out that in the longterm, merely reproducing TV content online at a quicker pace is not likely save the networks. They quote Todd Teresi, chief revenue officer at Quantcast: "We need to get to solutions that are as elegant as search. The power of the search marketplace is that Google does not sit there and tell you what you should buy. Google gave people control. That fundamentally is why that marketplace works so well."

I wonder if traditional TV will ever gives us the same control and the online world? It could be a very powerful move. Will hardware be the driver or content?  (see TV Moving Closer to Mobile Phones and the Web).

TVissimo applies search to TV scheduling and can potentially bring that focused revenue model to the table. 

A Counter View on Internet TV Convergence and a New Hope

Matt Richtel offers a counter view in his New York Times article, What Convergence? TV’s Hesitant March to the Net. Matt pointsout that you find the Web on almost all the screens we use today except perhaps the biggest one in our lives, the television. He writes that there is movement by chip makers to spur a new generation of TVs with full browser capability, like a personal computer. Intel released its own TV-centric chip in October 2008 and many other semiconductor designers and manufacturers are following them. However, Matt adds that television manufacturers such as Sony and Sharp do not seem to want this TV and Web convergence to occur. They claim that people are not ready for this. We find that hard to believe.

Matt speculates that television viewers do not want Web viruses to infect their TV during the Super Bowl, a valid point. He adds that TV viewers are used to a passive relationship with their TV and would not want to have the active involvement the Web brings. We think most people would welcome it. He also writes that TV manufacturers do not want to added cot of adding TV functionality to an already thin margin activity. Perhaps so but that is punishing the consumer. Let them decide.

For these reasons few TV manufacturers are using the new Intel chip. We think the winners will be the ones who do. TV makers risk losing control of the process if they do not figure out a solution soon enough. Perhaps cable boxes will allow for a work around. There is hope as Gordon Campbell’s new company, Personal Web Systems, is now shipping its first product, a $150 adapter that will attach to televisions to make them fully Internet-enabled. They are reducing the technology included in the TV adapter device into a single stamp-size semiconductor that would enable full Internet access in TVs in more developed markets. We see promise here.

TV Moves Closer to the Web and Mobile Phones

I asked, Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge? Information Week ran an article, Comcast Pushing TV To Phones, that addresses part of this question. Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis said it would eventually allow its cable television subscribers to watch shows via the Web at no additional charge. This would also be open to cell phones via a mobile browser, or potentially as applications on devices like iPhone or BlackBerry smartphones. Angelakis also said he could envision the company's On Demand video service having a wireless component in the future.

So here is more evidence of TV moving to both computers and mobile phones. Information Week said that “mobile television services have long been popular in markets like Japan, but the service has yet to significantly take off in the United States despite strong investments from the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. One inhibitor of this service is that it has generally carried a monthly fee of $10 or more, but there are signs that the market is poised to grow.”

Other carriers like Sprint are getting into the act. If it Comcast adds wireless voice services, it will be able to offer customers the "quadruple play," where one company provides users with home telephone, mobile phone, cable TV, and Internet services. Others can already do this. If these services are offered by one provider, it will also increase the likelihood of the services coming through the same hardware device.

Google moves deeper into specialized search

We have been discussing specialized search on the blog (for example, see: Yahoo Appears to be Changing Its Focus from Basic Search to Services and Yahoo's Changing Search Strategy - Will It Pick Up Niche Services? Yahoo is not the only mover in this direction. As reported by Venture beat, Google is planning to launch a music search service with music sites Lala and MySpace-owned iLike, according to multiple reports.

The article states that with this new service, you’ll be able to search for a musician, then play songs streamed from partner sites like Lala and iLike. CNET describes the goal as providing “everything a music fan may need when searching online for a favorite artist,” while TechCrunch says the pages will be modeled on Google’s results for public company searches.

It goes on to add that this sounds like a smart move for both Google and the music companies, giving Google a cool new service without requiring the search giant to host the music or strike deals with the record labels on its own, while bringing more exposure to Lala and iLike.

We certainly agree and feel that specialized search services are one of the next major directions with search. The Google page rank approach has been around for some time. It keeps getting refined but you can take it only so far.  It was a huge improvement over what was available. But you still get many false positives and lots of stuff to shift through. Specialized search can get you there faster.  This is the approach we have taken with TVissimo to provide you with quick access to what is one TV and the ability to send alerts when you favorite shows, actors, etc. will appear. You can find things you did not know where coming up.