Sept-Oct 2011

By Stephen Cousins

The TV user experience has failed to keep up with other devices, but next-generation EPGs will transform the TV to provide new levels of connectivity, multiple device support and advanced tools for content search and recommendation. Stephen Cousins reports


Remember that scene in the 1985 movie National Lampoon's European Vacation in which the American Griswold family decides to shack up in a flea-bitten old London hotel? They turn on the TV for some entertainment, only to discover that there are just three channels and each one is broadcasting a cheese-making documentary. This scene hilariously satirises the UK's then antiquated TV network, which has now thankfully expanded to include over 500 consumer channels that produce tens of thousands of hours of content a year.

But despite all the extra content, there are signs that the modern TV viewing experience is flagging. According to a survey of viewing habits across Europe, carried out by research firm ResearchNow, despite a choice of thousands of shows, 42% of people in the UK, 46% in France, 50% in Germany, and 38% in Sweden said there was frequently nothing to watch.

The blame, at least in part, must lie with TV electronic programme guides (EPG) and user interfaces (UIs), which have so far failed to sufficiently meet the viewers' needs or enhance their viewing experience. Although search engines and highly-polished websites accessed via portable PCs or touch screen smart- phones have transformed the user's internet experience over the past decade, most EPGs have barely changed format and TV viewers must still scroll through pages of TV channels and carry out numerous button presses using the same type of clunky remote control.

Times are changing, however, and an EPG shake-down is underway as broadcasters work to create slicker and exciting layouts, with features that encourage viewers to explore new forms of linear and over the top (OTT) content. Wi-Fi integration into TVs and set top boxes (STBs) is adding a new level of portability and interaction to the TV experience enabling users to manage, record or view TV on multiple connected devices, not least companion screens such as tablets.

Advanced search functions and targeted recommendations allow them to easily find the content that matters, simultaneously opening up new revenue streams for providers. Meanwhile, the ongoing craze for social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is creating opportunities for social interaction and peer recommendations, either within the TV's EPG or alongside it on a companion device.

Conflict over the control of TV
The EPG evolution may be a gradual one, but it is on the verge of something big. For cable and satellite TV market players, the increasing prevalence of internet connected TV is perhaps the biggest driver for making changes to the EPG.

Internet TV technology represents a threat, but also an opportunity to enhance services and create new revenue streams. According to media research firm IDATE, by 2015 the market for video on demand (VoD) services on the TV will be dominated by OTT offers, ie, VoD offers available via the TV's internet connection, worth EUR2 billion a year in Europe and EUR3.8 billion a year in the US.

As web-connected VoD and web video services like YouTube are added alongside social networks, users' personal media content and traditional linear programming there is a need to both enhance and simplify navigation of the EPG.

Some are making progress. The NDS Snowflake programme guide features an expanded 'now and next' programme banner. When the user pushes a button to view the banner, it also lists user-recorded or catch-up content from the same channel and recommends a list of movies and programmes similar to the current viewed programme from the service provider's VoD catalogue.

Providing recommendations of movies within the banner clearly drives revenue. Portugal's ZON launched its Snowflake-based EPG in January and soon after saw VoD uptake rise by 160%, claims NDS.

One challenge facing EPG design is conflict over the control of TV content. It is difficult to create an integrated and easy to navigate user experience (UX) when content providers such as the BBC, ITV, Netflix or YouTube want users to view material exclusively through their interface (iPlayer and ITV player etc) rather than via the network operators' EPG.

A growing trend among broadcasters for their online presence is to own the interface and stream the video. As Eric Kessler, HBO co-president, said earlier this year: "In the traditional delivery of television consumers believe the functional pieces - the EPG, the On Demand service - fall within the purview of the distributor. In the streaming world, consumers will hold HBO responsible for the interface and they expect the experience to be the same premium quality standard set by the brands content."

Ultimately the consumer will decide the industry's direction, says ADB's vice president of strategy Paul Bristow: "If the future of the EPG is 27 EPGs I'm not convinced. From a usability standpoint, integration is where things should go for ease of use, right now users have to remember where certain content comes from, which is messy. There will be a shake-out over the next five to ten years, with consumers either giving up on these things or moving to providers that can give a more unified approach."

Bristow highlights a viable compromise being made by one network operator in Belgium: "When viewing a channel, users can push a button to access the channel's on demand media player, meanwhile, the same content for all the channels is available via the operators' on demand menu." It's a win-win that combines a branded, channel-centric environment with an operator-centric one where the user can see everything available to them.

The integration of Wi-Fi access into embedded devices like STBs and TVs has fuelled innovation in EPG applications for many different connected client devices such as PCs, laptops, iPads or smartphones, that allow users to browse content, set recordings, change channels on the TV, launch VoD content or even view streamed content on the devices.

This connected multi-screen home environment better reflects the way consumers behave, with many watching TV whilst browsing a second screen like a laptop or smart phone. According to a recent survey by Yahoo, as many as 86% of TV viewers use mobile devices while watching TV.

"Too much of today's connected TV is simply a connection from the internet to the TV end point, which isn't how people live," says Bristow at ADB, whose new Virtual Gateway product, includes multi-screen support. "Consumers need technology that allows devices to talk to each other, which means having STBs powerful enough to cope with that."

However, providing UI and EPG support for multiple devices poses challenges for the operator, which needs a universal, branded application that is also tailored to suit the peculiarities of devices that have different screen resolutions, functionality and methods of interaction, via mouse, touch screen etc.

Have it your way
Personalisation will become a powerful watchword in the future and connected consumer devices provide an ideal platform to personalise the EPG. As a shared interface, the main TV screen is difficult to personalise to a single person's tastes, but client devices enable users to save favourite search terms; delete or favourite shows and channels in the TV guide; sign up for alerts on favourite shows, or receive live TV and VoD recommendations tailored to their preferences and behaviours.

"EPGs are evolving into personalised entertainment guides," says Eddie Abrahams, CEO of TV services provider IP Vision. "Portable devices, exposure to enhanced metadata and the addition of social media opens new possibilities and brings TV into the sphere of individuals' private online ecosystems."

In the future, advances in search & recommendation and their capacity for user-personalised and user-targeted content will have great potential for improving the UX and increasing operators' revenue.

With multiple content sources becoming available through the TV, greater amounts of metadata can be exposed and searched through the EPG, enabling users to navigate rapidly to the content that matters to them.

One pioneer in this area is TV Genius, a single integrated back end content discovery platform that can be embedded into EPGs on STBs, websites, iOS or Android applications. The service allows users to search TV and VoD content and receive recommendations and is already licensed to around ten TV operators in various countries, the company says.

TV Genius' advanced search functions allow users to search using key words and save specific searches. This new way of navigating content has huge scope, explains Tom Weiss, CEO at TV Genius: "It's amazing how high value areas like movies and sport can tap into very specialist, niche areas, depending on how you navigate the content," he says. "For example, a Chelsea football fan might want to see all the goals scored against 'Arsenal' or 'Manchester United', or search for all the 'red cards' against specific players they don't like. Searching for this kind of content will become a trend over the next five years."

TV-based recommendations
Recommendations have been a tricky area for TV because it is hard to tailor them for a single big screen typically used by several people. But new search functions will allow operators to provide recommendations based on recent search activity both on the TV and on connected devices.

A trend for social network integration on TV will add a new quality and reliability to recommendations, says Bo Valsted, product marketing manager for EPGs at NDS: "People are more likely to view shows recommended by a trusted network of friends."

Friend recommendations can also turn people onto content they might not previously have considered. Last month, TV Genius launched Facebook integration for connected devices, which displays pictures of friends that like certain programmes within the EPG. "We've been trialling it and people had a great emotional reaction to it, it's great from getting people to watch shows further down the EPG," says Weiss.

With thousands, if not millions of content choices soon to become available on TV screens, it seems logical to also change the traditional arrow based up-down-left-right navigation that most STBs rely on for something more intuitive.

Going through the motions
Motion control has become popular on games consoles through systems like the Wii remote or the controller-free Kinect for Xbox, but is it really suited to TV?

LG thinks so, having recently decided to deploy 'point and click' motion control devices for its next generation connected TVs. The remotes utilise Hillcrest's Freespace inertial motion sensing technology and combine input from accelerometers, gyroscopes and other sensors to provide accurate mouse-like pointing from either standing, sitting or reclining postures.

Similarly, Philips' uWand 'remote touch' remote control technology uses an infra-red beam to send its location to a receiver on the TV. Apart from direct pointing, the technology also recognises gestures made in three dimensions, enabling users to navigate through a 3D UI to bring certain menu items to the front of the screen or push others to the back, or flick a wrist to move onto the next page.

But motion control isn't an inspiration to everyone. "Increasing interaction with the TV screen is attempting to solve the wrong problem," says ADB's Bristow. "All the work we're doing is geared towards leaving the screen as free as possible for viewing TV programmes. TV management should be done via a device that's designed for management, like a laptop or smart phone, which is where the EPG is headed."

With slicker EPGs, more effective content discovery and easier personalisation of TV content, the industry may be on the verge of a viewing revolution not seen since the advent of the VCR. If not, there's certainly plenty to look forward to, says Bristow: "In five to ten years we will hopefully have reached market maturity for what we call the 'experience integrator' through which a viewer can simply drag and drop OTT services, like Netflix, into their pay TV package, search & recommendation will automatically be enabled alongside it and the service will become instantaneously and seamlessly accessible across all the devices in the home or on the move,"
he concludes.

It beats cheese-making on every channel, that's for sure.