Television Everywhere - the term now in vogue for internet-delivered TV of various sorts - is making the already-complicated experience of watching TV in a 400-channel world even more so.
In Part 1 we described the reality that underlies the viewer experience in a world of vast channel and program oversupply. Television has morphed from a simple and passive experience to being an application with six elements, each of which creates opportunities to help viewers get what they want, and for suppliers to do better in reaching audiences.
That was the "application" part. In what are still early days for internet-delivered TV, viewer behavior (and audience attractiveness for advertisers) is far from uniform. So whether it's helping viewers find what they want, and advertisers reach audiences, one size won't fit all.
We built some simple models exploring the potential economics of Television Everywhere, and in doing so used a simple segmentation of viewing behavior. Among the two most important variables for looking at "digital" viewing behavior and its economic potential are:
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Viewer involvement: what proportion of a viewer's time is spent in digital vs. linear viewing
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Format preference: does the viewer use the internet for short clips, highlights, and summaries or watch longer-form units of content?
So in our illustrative segmentation we have a framework with four quadrants that blend the two dimensions above.
So far, we've used the segmentation framework primarily to look at scenarios of future economics - the so called "analog dollars to digital dimes" question. And so, we posited viewing rates by format type, absorption rates of viewer demographics into different segments to calculate hypothetical displacement of time-spent viewing meshed with CPMs, etc. A host of semi-wonkish things that consultants and audience researchers might do.
But back to our Part 1 "Applications" idea, there are a couple of simpler points to make. If viewers are going to get help re-engaging with TV, and suppliers want to help them, it's worth thinking about the behavioral aspects of this sort of segmentation.
For example, 'Casual Snackers' may want only the simplest of lightweight tools to help them survey popular genres across a small number of internet-based TV sources. Whereas, 'Loyal Pod Viewers' may want much more sophisticated and frequently updated notifications of new content postings across many more programming categories. Viewers using the internet as a 'TV Substitute' are highly loyal to the medium and may want more collaborative-filtering style recommendations for long-form content, akin to what they may be used to enjoying today on Netflix.
Or not.
This is all going to be an experiment, but the point is that audience research teams, and streaming content site development should think at least in part about differentiated viewer segments and their requirements. The last thing we need are more players piling in on translating "God box" thinking of cable set tops into Web 2.0, or iPhone tools.
Today's 400-channel universe and the emerging Television Everywhere world have one thing in common - oversupply. The competition for viewer attention will continue to increase and pressure on television's most fundamental value proposition - mass audience reach - will intensify. Suppliers that provide "application"-like tools, targeted at or tuned for different viewer segments will outdistance those who don't.
We'll be exploring this and much more in our forthcoming book "Television Everywhere: How Hollywood Can Take Back the Internet and Turn Digital Dimes Into Dollars"
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