How TV operators are tapping into the tablet revolution – and what’s missing

written by: Emma Wells

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Published on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 22:23

Tablets are starting a slow, steady revolution in the way people watch  and interact with television.

Increasingly, tablets like the iPad and Motorola Xoom are positioning themselves as an entertainment portal. And the strategy seems to be working; According to a recent study in the UK, iPad owners are big consumers of TV:

1. 87% watch YouTube
2. 74% watch catch up TV
3. 52% watch iTunes videos
4. 38% watch live TV

How TV operators are responding

1. BBC iPlayer: The BBC’s iPad app lets viewers in the UK stream live TV or watch catch-up content. The app also facilitates content discovery with its Featured and Most Popular sections, and the ability to add any show to a list of favourites.
2. HBO GO: The app gives subscribers access to 1400 HBO programmes on-demand. It attempts to make the experience more personalised with a Watchlist. Just one week after launch, the mobile and tablet app was downloaded more than 1 million times. HBO Go is currently available on iPhone, iPad and Android phones, and aims to “be on every platform”.
3. Sky GO: This week, BSkyB announced that they launching a new multiscreen offer for viewers to watch live and catch-up TV on their connected devices.  SkyGo will be available to all 10 million of Sky’s current customers, and as well as offering a non-customer subscription for tablets, mobiles and PCs.
4. 4oD: Channel 4 in the UK has made its video on demand library available via a free iPad app. the app is ad-funded, with the first 3 months sponsored by Heineken. The app has experienced strong initial demand, with 250,000 downloads in the first 3 weeks.  Similar to HBO Go, 4oD plans to continue to roll out the app on iPhone and Android phones.

The competitive space looks to become even more cluttered, with rumours of Channel 5, Boxee Box, Film4, and ITV rolling out similar TV apps for tablets.

With so many companies jumping into the space, it’s clear that getting TV content onto as many devices as possible is the way forward if you want to remain competitive.

What TV operators are missing

Many of the TV tablet apps have taken a few tentative steps toward personalisation, but no one has fully embraced the potential of TV interfaces that can learn and change according to an individual’s preferences and tastes.

What a lot of these operators seem to be overlooking is the chance not only to offer content anytime, anywhere, but to personalise the entire TV experience.

While watching the main TV tends to be a group experience, watching TV on an app is much more intimate and personal.

Emma blogs for TV Genius over at the TV Trends Blog. TV Genius is a software company that has specialised in TV content discovery, recommendations, search, and interactive TV guides since 2005.