Individual Television Experience
Encyclopedia
The Individual Television Experience (or Individual TV Experience) is a collection of consumer demands and behavioral patterns that includes the personalization of television
viewing, including the ability to watch content free of broadcaster
schedules and the ability to consume content on video
display devices other than the traditional ‘home’ television set
, such as PCs
and mobile phone
s.
service provider UPC Switzerland has linked a more personalized television experience that includes time-shifting
of television viewing to the term ‘Individual Television Experience’.
The ability for consumers to watch ‘what they want, when they want’ - sometimes described as the ability to watch TV on your own schedule - is a publicized benefit of Video on Demand
(VOD) services available on cable and IPTV
television systems The World Cable Association describes Video on Demand as a “service that is revolutionizing the way television is being watched. It goes by your schedule; you choose what you want to watch and when you want to watch it!” In publicity about its new IPTV service, U.S. telecoms company Verizon states that “with video-on-demand from FiOS TV, you can watch what you want, when you want."
UPC Switzerland
has advertised the ability for consumers to control the programming they watch, and when they watch it, under the campaign banner ‘Individual Television Experience’. The company was recognized in the CTAM Europe Creative Awards Program for its cablecom advertising, in which a husband explains how his wife likes to go hiking or skiing at weekends while he would prefer to stay at home watching TV. The advert describes how it is now easy to “record everything at the push of a button and watch recorded content whenever you want,” and illustrates the point by recording a weather report for time-shifted viewing.
and for TV that connects consumers to their activities on mobile phones and PCs, including content creation such as user-generated content
. Content mobility is considered an important part of the Individual Television Experience.
Ericsson
and TANDBERG Television
have directly linked the ability to deliver video across multiple television/communication
s platforms to multiple screens – including satellite television
, cable TV and digital terrestrial TV
– to the Individual Television Experience. The ability to deliver and receive integrated video content via PCs, TVs and mobile devices is considered by some commentators to be the 'holy grail' of service providers, as broadcasting and fixed and mobile communications converge.
The Individual Television Experience has been linked to the convergence of live television
and on-demand video (such as Video on Demand) with broadband
, mobile and fixed-line telephony services and has been portrayed as ‘converged TV’ because of its emphasis on the availability of television content to any consumer device including mobile phones. Swedish company Ericsson has argued that the Individual Television Experience is a means for television/communications providers, and especially telecoms and broadband companies offering television services (IPTV
), to improve the consumer TV experience and attract new customers and revenues.
The term Individual Television Experience has been applied to a television delivery/consumption paradigm where four key consumer desires are met, namely TV that is personal, TV that is high quality, TV that connects consumers to other multimedia
activities, and TV that is value for money. The concept is also being applied in the context of one or more of these consumer desires being present.
’. A Televisionary is expected to deliver video content to multiple screens (TV, PC and mobile phone) seamlessly including high-definition video and enable consumers to achieve interactivity between the TV, PC and mobile devices, which should be able to talk to each other and have instant, real-time access to the Internet
regardless of their location.
A Televisionary service provider enables time-shift television services such as Start-Over TV functionality and the ability to transfer recorded content from one device to another, such as television recordings taken from home and watched on a PC in the work environment. This combination of multimedia content mobility and time-shifted control of viewing are core principles of the Individual Television Experience and the concepts of Televisionary, Individual Television Experience and Personalized TV Experience are closely linked.
A number of technology suppliers are developing products to enable the multi-platform capabilities linked to the Individual Television Experience and Televisionary, including Alcatel-Lucent
, SeaChange International Inc, ARRIS
and particularly Swedish company Ericsson. Adi Kishore, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading, says Ericsson has been "the most aggressive in this area with its Televisionary campaign". Ericsson has outlined the multi-platform service future in a series of Televisionary Roadshows, including in Sydney
, Moscow
and Cape Town
.
The goal of enabling the seamless, multi-screen services at the heart of the Individual Television Experience is considered the ultimate ambition for telecoms and broadband companies offering television services (IPTV) but is something that is still at the proof of concept
stage. It will require a complicated technology and service ecosystem and new network capabilities for both fixed
and wireless broadband but there are realistic expectations that this will evolve from technologies that are available today.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
viewing, including the ability to watch content free of broadcaster
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
schedules and the ability to consume content on video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
display devices other than the traditional ‘home’ television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
, such as PCs
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
and mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s.
Consumer research
The Individual Television Experience has been identified following consumer research carried out through the Ericsson Consumer Lab into what people expect from television, a project that includes 35,000 interviews in more than 25 countries. It is considered especially relevant to the younger consumer demographic described as Digital Natives. Cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
service provider UPC Switzerland has linked a more personalized television experience that includes time-shifting
Time shifting
Time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts....
of television viewing to the term ‘Individual Television Experience’.
Personalized television
The Individual Television Experience includes the desire for TV that is personal, meaning that people want to control what programming they watch and when they watch it, and which devices they watch it on. This includes the ability to time-shift television programming.The ability for consumers to watch ‘what they want, when they want’ - sometimes described as the ability to watch TV on your own schedule - is a publicized benefit of Video on Demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
(VOD) services available on cable and IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
television systems The World Cable Association describes Video on Demand as a “service that is revolutionizing the way television is being watched. It goes by your schedule; you choose what you want to watch and when you want to watch it!” In publicity about its new IPTV service, U.S. telecoms company Verizon states that “with video-on-demand from FiOS TV, you can watch what you want, when you want."
UPC Switzerland
UPC Broadband
UPC Broadband is a Pan-European Communications company owned by Liberty Global and is active in several European countries providing bundled cable television, internet and telephone services....
has advertised the ability for consumers to control the programming they watch, and when they watch it, under the campaign banner ‘Individual Television Experience’. The company was recognized in the CTAM Europe Creative Awards Program for its cablecom advertising, in which a husband explains how his wife likes to go hiking or skiing at weekends while he would prefer to stay at home watching TV. The advert describes how it is now easy to “record everything at the push of a button and watch recorded content whenever you want,” and illustrates the point by recording a weather report for time-shifted viewing.
Mobility and convergence
The Individual Television Experience recognizes the demand for TV that is high quality, which includes the need for HDTVHigh-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
and for TV that connects consumers to their activities on mobile phones and PCs, including content creation such as user-generated content
User-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
. Content mobility is considered an important part of the Individual Television Experience.
Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
and TANDBERG Television
Tandberg Television
Ericsson Television, formerly Tandberg Television, is a company providing MPEG-4 video on demand, and interactive television systems to telecommunications network operators and broadcasters. It was acquired by Swedish company, Ericsson in 2007, and was re-branded as Ericsson Television in 2010.The...
have directly linked the ability to deliver video across multiple television/communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
s platforms to multiple screens – including satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
, cable TV and digital terrestrial TV
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
– to the Individual Television Experience. The ability to deliver and receive integrated video content via PCs, TVs and mobile devices is considered by some commentators to be the 'holy grail' of service providers, as broadcasting and fixed and mobile communications converge.
The Individual Television Experience has been linked to the convergence of live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
and on-demand video (such as Video on Demand) with broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
, mobile and fixed-line telephony services and has been portrayed as ‘converged TV’ because of its emphasis on the availability of television content to any consumer device including mobile phones. Swedish company Ericsson has argued that the Individual Television Experience is a means for television/communications providers, and especially telecoms and broadband companies offering television services (IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
), to improve the consumer TV experience and attract new customers and revenues.
The term Individual Television Experience has been applied to a television delivery/consumption paradigm where four key consumer desires are met, namely TV that is personal, TV that is high quality, TV that connects consumers to other multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
activities, and TV that is value for money. The concept is also being applied in the context of one or more of these consumer desires being present.
Multi-screen television services
A television and communications network operator that provides consumers with the Individual Television Experience is being described as a ‘TelevisionaryTelevisionary
The concept of a ‘Televisionary’ is being used to describe television and communications network operators who are developing services that provide consumers with more control over when, where and how they consume video and other multimedia content...
’. A Televisionary is expected to deliver video content to multiple screens (TV, PC and mobile phone) seamlessly including high-definition video and enable consumers to achieve interactivity between the TV, PC and mobile devices, which should be able to talk to each other and have instant, real-time access to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
regardless of their location.
A Televisionary service provider enables time-shift television services such as Start-Over TV functionality and the ability to transfer recorded content from one device to another, such as television recordings taken from home and watched on a PC in the work environment. This combination of multimedia content mobility and time-shifted control of viewing are core principles of the Individual Television Experience and the concepts of Televisionary, Individual Television Experience and Personalized TV Experience are closely linked.
A number of technology suppliers are developing products to enable the multi-platform capabilities linked to the Individual Television Experience and Televisionary, including Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
, SeaChange International Inc, ARRIS
ARRIS
ARRIS Group Inc. is a telecommunications equipment manufacturing company which provides cable operators with high-speed data, video and telephony systems for homes and businesses...
and particularly Swedish company Ericsson. Adi Kishore, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading, says Ericsson has been "the most aggressive in this area with its Televisionary campaign". Ericsson has outlined the multi-platform service future in a series of Televisionary Roadshows, including in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
.
The goal of enabling the seamless, multi-screen services at the heart of the Individual Television Experience is considered the ultimate ambition for telecoms and broadband companies offering television services (IPTV) but is something that is still at the proof of concept
Proof of concept
A proof of concept or a proof of principle is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory that has the potential of being used...
stage. It will require a complicated technology and service ecosystem and new network capabilities for both fixed
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
and wireless broadband but there are realistic expectations that this will evolve from technologies that are available today.