Numote CEO Ponders Evolving Market
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There has been a lot of media coverage about how TV is changing.
Almost every week I see news about social startups looking to disrupt
the TV viewing experience or new TVs that claim to be "smart." Yes there
are apps for "checking-in" to TV shows but there's more to the future
of TV than sharing what you are watching.
Working at a social tv company over the past 2 years, I've had a chance to get some insights on how things are really shaping up and what's to come. At its core, there are two components powering the change in the TV viewing experience: detecting what viewer's watching and adding context.
It's funny to think that of what you are watching as important data. Of course you know what you are watching, but until recently, that data was locked up in the set top box with no way to get at it. There are three emerging trends unlocking what you are watching. Startups such as Peel and Dijit are taking the route insert themselves in the "click stream" as a remote control device. Into_Now recently acquired by Yahoo and Flingo take another route of detecting viewer's content through the audio and video signals from the TV. Finally, content providers such as DirecTV and AT&T have begun offering a limited number of app developers access to APIs to access what a viewer is currently watching removing the need for detection technologies.
The fun part comes after detecting what a users is watching, adding context and interactivity to the normally passive show. This new contextual and interactive layer for TV can include anything from celebrity tweets and gossip, to polls and games to encourage discussion. The coolest example I've seen is an mobile application called TVplus that pushes information about a show such as character bios and tidbits as you watch. Other start-ups such as Miso and Getglue are plugging away at building this new layer for TV while companies such as Rogue Paper and Echo are helping TV networks jump into the game by providing the technology for TV networks to create their own solutions.
Who will win? It's not too early to place your bets. On the identification side, service providers are in a unique position to easily and accurately share information about what users are watching, regardless of what remote control or TV their users buy. As for the contextual layer, content creators and networks are likely to be the big winners with options to create compelling content through the second screen. Moreover, the data from usage of these apps will allow content providers to learn about their their viewers and further enrich and refine their programming in a totally new way.
While the future of TV is still in flux, what is certain is that we have a great future of TV watching ahead of us.
Vijay Kailas, formerly of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Graduate of MIT is the Founder and CEO at Numote - a Social Second Screen Delivery Platform.
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