In a recent survey, Rovi discovered that 90% of tablet users and 89% of mobile phone users in the U.S. said being able to search across multiple video services at once was either a must have or nice to have feature. Further, 40% of both groups rated this feature as “must have.” The company found similar results across Europe, particularly in the UK and Germany.
I wonder what this percentage is among smart TV viewers – where search is strangled by onscreen keyboards.
Our guess is that the percentage of smart TV viewers who would rate cross-video service search a “must have” is much higher than 40%.
In fact, according to a recent Wired Statgeist Chart, more than 95% of smart TV owners cite “the ability to find what they want to watch when they want to watch it” as the most important feature of a smart TV.
It’s time for Kannuu.
A great article in the Australian gives a rundown of all the technical advancements in the most recent wave of smart TVs hitting the market.
From faster processors to burgeoning app stores to voice & motion control to stunning displays, TV viewing has never been more spectacular.
Add to this enormous quantities of new, quality content from OTT and other non-broadcast/cable/satellite producers, and it becomes clear that home TV viewing has never been richer.
Only hitch is that as smart TV functionality becomes increasingly sophisticated and great video content grows exponentially, finding what you want to watch when you want to watch it has become cumbersome, time consuming and downright aggravating.
What good are all of these technical advancements if a smart TV fails its most basic function – helping find something great to watch?
If consumers can’t quickly and easily access the content they want, they’ll shun technical bells and whistles and switch their TV manufacturer and/or streaming media player and/or OTT service provider and or broadband/cable/satellite company.
It’s simple. Improve search. Please customers. Win market share and cement loyalty.
Regrettably , voice & gesture control alone do not vanquish the search bottleneck, and don’t even get me started on the iRing…
Smart TV will truly take off only when searching across services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, VOD, etc.) for the content you want can be done quickly and easily – w/out navigating that tortuous onscreen keyboard, or babbling like an idiot, or flailing like a madman, or tearing up the cushions in search of that damn iRing…
It’s time for Kannuu!
An Apple TV might be cool, particularly one that comes with an accompanying, albeit smaller, screen.
But do we really need iRing control?
To be sure, a fast & easy way to search across channels & services for something to watch is what consumers crave most in today’s world of exploding, quality content.
Apple, meet Kannuu!!!
Wired reports that “The Nielsen Family is Dead.”
Seems the surge in quality content from OTT providers like Netflix is rapidly driving change in the television industry.
Quality original programs means big money, Wired reports, and because the traditional Nielsen rating method does not count programs watched via streaming media (on TVs, PCs, Game Consoles, Tablets, etc.), the picture Nielsen provides of who’s watching what when is no longer as accurate, or as relevant.
Nielsen is scrambling to make the necessary corrections, adding meters that can monitor viewership of OTT content through broadband in addition to the traditional broadcast or cable hook-up.
Whether or not Nielsen can fix its disconnect remains to be seen.
What what once marked the beginning and and of TV content now signals ground zero of a content revolution, a revolution led by a new breed of creator unencumbered by time or format constraints and under allegiance only to quality.
It cannot be denied that a new age of television is dawning.
And if the Nielsen Family is dead, then what other entrenched, slow-moving player(s) are on the endangered list?
There’s no telling. Let the cards fall where they may.
But, please, someone, kill off that tortuous, search-strangling onscreen keyboard!!!
We simply cannot let the onscreen keyboard continue to bottleneck the discovery of great content.
Wired also reports what smart TV feature matters most to today’s consumers — namely, the ability to quickly and easily find what we want to watch.
Whomever designs the best search & discovery interface for finding something to watch in this exciting new world of exploding, quality content will own the consumers – who will ultimately dictate where advertising dollars are spent, and in the process, determine who lives and who dies in the new age of viewership.
It’s time for Kannuu!!!
Content advisory service The NDP Group conducted a survey confirming the ubiquitous nature of Internet-connected devices.
In 2013 alone, the number of online devices in the average U.S. household has increased from 5.3 to 5.7 in only three months, reaching more than 500 million devices, total, according to NDP.
Big numbers indeed. While NDP cites huge surges in smartphones and tablets, connected TVs in the US are also rising sharply – Over 30 percent of consumers in the United States who plan to purchase a TV set in the next 12 months want an Internet-connected TV or Smart TV. (IMS Research).
The quantity and quality of video content (Pay TV and OTT) is also surging & all pundits agree that TV is the preferred way to view video content (movies, shows, etc.).
Biggest challenge for consumers today is finding what they want to watch across the growing array of services – >95% cite this as biggest challenge according to Wired (03.13 issue).
It’s time for Kannuu!!!
Read Content Standard article: Internet-Connected Devices Top 500 Million in US
Matt Elliott (@themattelliott) is a great blogger for CNET. Kannuu follows him regularly and in most cases – agrees with his analysis.
Matt recently wrote a blog post: With which service can you watch that movie? in which he gives theCan I Stream.it app some well-deserved props.
But truth be told, Can I Stream.it is simply one among many undifferentiated mobile apps in the mix, and none of these ‘me-too’ 2nd-screen search & discovery apps have broken the smart TV barrier — which is where most people prefer to watch all video content in today’s hybrid Pay TV / streaming media world.
The technology is here — as in available today, and presently deployed by Telstra, REELZTV and Western Digital (and many others soon to be announced.)
C’mon, Matt – Throw us a tweet & we’ll show you the future of search & discovery in today’s smart TV world (@KannuuSearch)
The stark reality is that in today’s rapidly evolving TV market — as indisputably revealed in the info-graphic from the March 2012 issue of Wired Magazine — the consumer is king.
More pointedly, with all the fancy options today’s TVs have to offer, the vast majority (more than 95%) simply want the ability to find what they want to watch when they want to watch it.
Wired Issue 21.3 TV feature desire info-graphic
It’s time for Kannuu!!