Widgets may be the best way of bringing the Internet to TV, but operators still seem shy about their widget strategies – if they have one. This contrasts strongly with big Internet players from Amazon to MySpace, and most notably Yahoo, who is relying on widgets to revive its Google-battered business. But then the PC or mobile handset are natural habits for widgets, while for TV the chips are still on the table. Put simply, will consumers engage with either social networks or ecommerce sites via widgets?
Widgets minimise the hassle factor, so if people will not trade through TVs that way, they never will. For product or service advertising, widgets hold out the prospect of straight-through one click Amazon-style fulfilment. Furthermore with consumers already becoming familar with widgets on the web, success in TV will follow soon enough, according to a report published in October 2009 by Ernst & Young’s Global Media Entertainment Center (EYGMEC). The report, Will widgets work? Web-enabled TV in search of a killer app found that 76% of consumers would welcome having a widget toolbar on their primary telly, while 61% wouild like their TV to connect to the Internet. This, argued John Nendrick, EYGMEC’s global sector leader, provided a sound bed for widget applications to grow on.
In these early days the few operators deploying widgets seem to be more intent on using them to encourage social networking from the TV, even though this will not immediately generate much revenue. The French cable operator Numericable for example has deployed Nagravision’s widget platform for customers ”to interact with their TV and build a genuine social network as part of their TV experience." Numericable plans initially to launch a widget called "MyTV," that will allow customers to send program alerts to their friends.
In the longer term though Numericable wants to create a fertile widget ecosystem like the Apple Appstore model, with the operator firmly in control of events. Numericable’s widget strategy therefore is to be the focal point for a range of applications combining the web and TV, and avoid becoming just the delivery pipe for content. Indeed the platform deployed by Numericable includes the Nagra Media Widget Studio, a service publishing tool giving operators and their partners the ability to create custom libraries of widget services that leverage their pay-TV infrastructure. The system is a Web-based front end to the Nagra Media CMS (content management system), the Nagra Media SDP (service delivery platform), and OpenTV's Core 2.0 client middleware and its associated HTML browser.
Indeed Nagravision itself also views the Apple Appstore model as being suited to an emerging TV widget world, because here too consumers will want access to a wide range of third party applications. “Considering the success and the lessons from the iPhone’s “app store” we believe that the sum of each individual application is more valuable than a particular application,” said Keenan Gates, Nagravision VP of marketing for widgets. “This is why our strategy is not only based upon delivering widgets to end users but also offering an end to end eco-system where operators can host a widget store and open their platform to third party developers to bring customized applications to their users.” At the same time though Gates agreed with its customer Numericable that for pay TV, there would be a strong focus on social networking. “We do believe there are more important applications that are core to augmenting PayTV services, such as social TV functionality helping the PayTV customers share TV viewing experience with friends and family, as opposed to informational application such as the weather app.”
Yet many operators do not believe consumers are quite ready for widget TV. The leading Polish operator Multimedia Polska has tempered early enthusiasm for widgets and does not now see it as a high priority for its customers, according to its Strategy and Development Director Kasinski Bartlomiej.
One reason for such reticence can be found in the otherwise encouraging Ernst & Young report. There is the risk that widgets could prove a distraction causing some viewers to lose interest in the program they are watching and switch off, according to that report. There is also the challenge of avoiding advertising conflict – for example to prevent a widget advertising a car appearing during a commercial for a model from a rival.
On the other hand providing the right balance is found, with widgets used sparingly and carefully, they could prove an increasingly important service differentiator, according to Nagravision’s Gates, particularly in the case of new services seeking to poach customers from existing operators. “We find that more often than not, those who are entering a new service deployment are interested in using the widget platform to help differentiate its offering in the market place.”
Incumbents want to hang on to the customers they have got, but should remember that they need at least to develop a coherent widget strategy, for as Gates pointed out, widgets will become the standard way of connecting the web to the TV. “The widget platform is based on web services,” said Gates. “We believe it is a natural extension to use the same web services infrastructure to enable “external sites” or infrastructure to enable services on the TV. “
Listen to Kasinski Bartlomiej, Strategy and Development Director, Multimedia Polska, debate the value and benefits of TV widgets and their impact on TV advertising at the Future of TV Advertising Conference, being held in London on December 11th. Watch live online free of charge by registering online. www.futuretvads.com
Full E&Y report: http://ow.ly/s8Kk
About the author
Philip Hunter is a leading specialist writer on the business of delivery and consumption of digital entertainment. He writes widely for both technical journals and specialist web sites, as well as more general interest publications such as Prospect Magazine, conveying complex ideas and subjects in a clear but not condescending manner. In the multimedia content and TV arenas, Philip combines in depth technical knowledge with appreciation of the business models that will bring success in the new age of on-demand content consumption, identifying the opportunities and pitfalls facing operators, broadcasters and content providers as they embrace new platforms beyond the traditional end point of the set top box.
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