What many had predicted has come to pass. We're already traveling in a world of "many to many" communications, with the old, quaint notion of "one-to-many" media broadcasting now appearing as a distant signpost in the rear-view mirror. As the cable MSOs remain the largest providers of subscription television in North America (in an increasingly competitive environment), some may ask the question: "Does Cable "Get It"?

That is to say, does cable understand that a new generation of viewers are spending an increasing amount of their daily "viewing" (be it video or otherwise) in front of a laptop or desktop PC screen - and less and less time in the often communal act of watching TV on the biggest screen in the house?

It’s a question that needs to be asked. Because, beyond the dichotomy of “Professionally Created Content” vs. “User Generated Content” (sometimes referred to as “UGC”) – we’re rapidly moving into the territory of “User CONFIGURED Content.” Content that is arranged, assembled and edited as drag-and-drop, click-to-install elements that represent the entertainment/social dashboards of their lives.

The "Widget Nation” is here, and combined with the move to time-shifted video viewing, a powerful dynamic is at play. While Grandma and your Uncle Fred may not be in the “demo” – there is a change brewing among younger audiences. With them, linear TV viewing behavior is shrinking, and for what video they do watch - these customers are demanding choice and socially-aware configurability on every screen they use (their cellphone, their laptop, their HDTV).

Given these new realities, it’s up to everyone in the video distribution business (cable or otherwise) who wants to (A) draw an audience, and (B) keep their attention - to figure out how their going to vie for that finite quantity of user “engagement” – which is the must-have quality of media and advertising today.

So, why is this important to Television (As We Know It)? Does the “PC Model” of application snacking and heterogeneous “mix and match” application usage (install & uninstall) apply to both linear and non-linear TV? The early indication is: Yes and No.

• Yes, in that the concept of the unbound (not channel or program-specific) applications have already made it to TV, on all 3 major platform providers (cable, satellite, telco TV). Examples here include sports statistic (and eBay auction) trackers; news/sports/traffic & weather headline and capsule summary feeds; Yellow Pages on TV, Games and a host of other standard ITV favorites. Some of them are customizable and configurable by the customer, with preferences stored either on the client or server-side.

• No, in that these applications were neither directly installed by the customer – nor were they something the customer downloaded on their own.

Here we find the great central question that will persist for some time.

If the business of delivering television for the “lean back” / 10’ / couch-based experience is ONLY to make it reliable, steady and easy to get to watching video (be it linear or time-shifted) – without a lot of distractions, then what the customer wants to customize about that experience themselves will remain a tightly-scripted layer of options.

For many customers, it’s what they want. This is a “Program Guide Centric” model of TV, where some improvements in the UI may always be necessary, but no assumptions are made as to a significant inclusion of the customer in the personalization of their viewing experience. This will suffice for audiences that skew older, and are quite comfortable with TV remaining primarily a passive, "Don’t Make Me Think!" (too hard) experience.

However, if the cultural shift of PC and Mobile video viewing continues to push younger viewers away from Linear and toward On Demand and Searchable IP-based video, then subscription TV will have to adapt to that audience and their heightened expectations as to what a device that delivers video can (and should) do for them.

This is about how video is becoming Social - commented on, chatted about, shared with friends, rated and tagged, multi-tasked and interacted with on a continuous basis.

It’s not an “either/or” question. It’s a “both/and” reality.

And at that point, it doesn’t matter if the screen is 6” or 2’ or 10’ away from the hungry eyes of the viewer. We have before us an enormous opportunity (and challenge) to serve-up a platter of interactive and flexible video viewing options akin to the ones they can easily get elsewhere.

In closing, it is my sense that Cable (with a capital “C”) does indeed “Get It” – and the race is on to adapt business models and interfaces to keep the audience they have, and to innovate as aggressively and rapidly as they’ve ever done before. Cable’s entrepreneurial spirit is what keeps so many of us working in this industry, and the proud legacy of innovation, exemplified in its history of ITV experiments and Emmys won, are not laurels to rest on – but indications of how cable can not only still “Get It” – but deliver.

-Will Kreth
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NOTE:
The opinions, views and concepts expressed in this blog are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer (Time Warner Cable), nor of the participating governance body members of OEDN.net.