SXSW: TV of the Future
The South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) Conference in Austin, TX is living up to its vision…looking forward. Today, I attended a speech by Razorfish on the “Future of TV.”
The talk was given by Dominic Venuto of Razorfish, a global media agency recently acquired from Microsoft by Publicis. By the way, Venuto mentioned that Publicis now controls 60 billion dollars in media budget for its combined global base of clients. So, if you think TV is not important to them…think again.
Venuto started the talk with the notion that TV is alive and well, and here to stay. His talk, focused on the future of TV and the impact that digital trends will have on the medium. Without sounding too taken in I have to say that I think he is on the right track.
Venuto covered some recent research that Razorfish did, which looked at uncovering the DNA of TV viewers. The research was an ethnographic study that follows a set of families giving up TV for one week. Razorfish tracked what families did in the absence of TV and basically concluded that they all wanted was their TV back. In the process though, they identified some motivations for why the masses watch TV, or what they call the DNA of viewers. The answers provide no new surprises…relaxation, something to talk about, voyeurism, the desire to learn, participation, etc. The study also talked about what TV might look like in the future.
Here is their vision…
1. TV is no longer a time line driven event. That is to say, we are used to content being programmed and watching TV based on a schedule. Now, if you have a DVR or TIVO you are used to watching content when you want to versus when the networks publish it. Venuto takes this one step further to say that the TV of the future is CONTENT first and that CHANNELS go away. Meaning…when you turn your TV on you look for what you want to watch instead of what channel you like. You decisions focus on what content fits your mood, not what channel produced the content. I agree with, and like this notion. It’s what drives the Internet and destinations like YouTube, Hulu, Vevo, etc.
2. TV will become social. When you turn the TV of the future on, you might see content served to you that is based on what you friends are watching. Further, while watching TV you might even be interacting with friends through live chat while you are watching a program. In addition, you could create a “program” based on a set of video snippets that your friends are viewing. Again, channels are less important and defined by each individual based on their social graphs.
As a side note here, Venuto mentioned that TV will become a combination of both short form and long form content. Imagine highlight reel clips, news clips, YouTube, etc interspersed with traditionally produced content.
3. TV will be portable. With internet devices taking off, TV content might be consumed anywhere. Companies like Sling Box make that happen, but if the iPad (and similar devices) take off than the possibilities are limitless. This already happens Asia, but believe it or not, you may not watch all of your TV on the couch in the future.
4. Gaming will become incorporated. Technologies like Nitendo Wii and Xbox 360 are able to sense what your body is doing for gaming. In the future, this could extend into regular programming and advertisements. Imagine an ad saying…”think you can swing a golf club like the pros…get up, try it now, and see how far your swing goes”. The TV senses your movement and the ad now includes YOU.
5. Produced Content Merges with User Generated Data. Instead of texting or calling in votes, a viewer can vote for something right on the screen. In real time, votes are collected and viewed in context of the show or event.
A couple of things are taking place here. The user interface for the TV becomes more interactive, TV programs include real time content, and TV’s begins acting like the next social network. If you think about it…all of the technologies exist. It is just a matter of who can put it together best. Venuto covered a lot more than just this and showed some elegant user interfaces as well. However, for now, I hope this gives you a snipped of what I heard today at SXSW.
Thoughts, opinions, etc. Let em rip…
Newc, this is a great post, thanks. My concern with this vision for the future of TV is with how it will stymie new shows. If we're not tuning into networks at specific times, then established shows can't provide strong lead-ins for new shows (I believe this is often the case now). How will they support new shows and build viewership moving forward? If we're not watching commercials (amen) and we tune in whenever we please, just seems like it's not much harder to launch.
ReplyDeleteInterested to hear what you think about this.