In this Future of TV blog item (BBC Labs), there's a discussion about Voices (their new fangled name for Channels) and Choices (On demand).
I think that there is going to be a significant demand well into the future for Channels (Voices), Can you seriously see a future whereby a significant chunk of non-live programming will be server broadcast rather than linearly?
Voices and Choices
I guess that because different demographics will be consuming diferent ratios of linear:on-demand content, until that proportion of people watching content almost exclusively on-demand is extremely high, there will always be the need to maintain that lowest common denominator of Voices as we see them now.
I think now I'm probably watching more of the BBC's output than I did maybe this time last year, and this is almost entirely because of iPlayer on VM. When I was living in halls with an analogue terrestrial box, the evening's viewing basically meant Channel 4 was left on from about 6 until 1ish, unless we knew of something specific elsewhere. In my house now I have the basic VM package, and although we channel surf more at night, I'm generally living more from on-demand content, but, as the article suggests, its 'guided' by my understanding of the existing brands at play. For example, I was inexplicably rather drawn in by the just-finished Picture Book series on BBC Four. I never actually saw it on BBC Four, but after finding nothing else to watch while browsing Virgin's on-demand offering, seeing its listing on iPlayer along with my existing appreciation of BBC Four as a brand is probably what pushed me into taking a leap of faith into watching something which otherwise may have passed me by. If I was to take the same series which was sitting on YouTube's home page as a featured video with no other context, I'm quite sure I never would've thought to follow it through.
So I see the problem that if in the near/far future, there is a time where the BBC is to pump out more content which is consumed via iPlayer (or really any other unscheduled outlet), without another voice/brand/channel to take ownership of it, is there any other context which allows for discoverability ? - the element which certainly isn't being tackled yet.
In my view, iPlayer in its current form is a very subtle transition from complete dependence on linear schedules, to very little more than 'catching up on that episode of EastEnders I missed last night'. If they build a coherent model of collaborative filtering that can relate bits of content together based on segmented viewing habits etc. I think perhaps eventually the Voice is offloaded from channels and brands and the content can speak for itself. I don't think this is just about tacking on a 'People who watched x watched y...', but new ways of drilling down through content. Essentially, iPlayer should've told me I'd like Picture Book before I knew I did.
I think now I'm probably watching more of the BBC's output than I did maybe this time last year, and this is almost entirely because of iPlayer on VM. When I was living in halls with an analogue terrestrial box, the evening's viewing basically meant Channel 4 was left on from about 6 until 1ish, unless we knew of something specific elsewhere. In my house now I have the basic VM package, and although we channel surf more at night, I'm generally living more from on-demand content, but, as the article suggests, its 'guided' by my understanding of the existing brands at play. For example, I was inexplicably rather drawn in by the just-finished Picture Book series on BBC Four. I never actually saw it on BBC Four, but after finding nothing else to watch while browsing Virgin's on-demand offering, seeing its listing on iPlayer along with my existing appreciation of BBC Four as a brand is probably what pushed me into taking a leap of faith into watching something which otherwise may have passed me by. If I was to take the same series which was sitting on YouTube's home page as a featured video with no other context, I'm quite sure I never would've thought to follow it through.
So I see the problem that if in the near/far future, there is a time where the BBC is to pump out more content which is consumed via iPlayer (or really any other unscheduled outlet), without another voice/brand/channel to take ownership of it, is there any other context which allows for discoverability ? - the element which certainly isn't being tackled yet.
In my view, iPlayer in its current form is a very subtle transition from complete dependence on linear schedules, to very little more than 'catching up on that episode of EastEnders I missed last night'. If they build a coherent model of collaborative filtering that can relate bits of content together based on segmented viewing habits etc. I think perhaps eventually the Voice is offloaded from channels and brands and the content can speak for itself. I don't think this is just about tacking on a 'People who watched x watched y...', but new ways of drilling down through content. Essentially, iPlayer should've told me I'd like Picture Book before I knew I did.
I like the convenience of having telly dumped in font of me without asking for it and I think most people will never grow out of that. Not that you'd want to, because spare time is too scarce to spend proactively seeking out new content with no easy way of 'dipping in'. Channel hopping is fun too, you don't get that pleasure with OD.
lukey makes a good point about channel association... if there's some new comedy series I come across on iPlayer, if it's got the BBC One or Three logo on it I'm much more likely to give it a miss than if it has a Two or Four, regardless of who's in it and if it's any good.
lukey makes a good point about channel association... if there's some new comedy series I come across on iPlayer, if it's got the BBC One or Three logo on it I'm much more likely to give it a miss than if it has a Two or Four, regardless of who's in it and if it's any good.