Presenting Rules of Engagement #2: How to Become the Tour Guide for TV Viewers

In our previous Operators Survival Guide post presenting Rules of Engagement #1, we discussed the changes in the living room and in people’s expectations when watching TV. In this post, we’ll dive deeper into how operators should adapt to maintain their central position in the TV experience.

Viewers need a tour guide to help them navigate the adventure of content discovery and consumption. Content service providers, who are in the best position to play that role, must understand the constantly changing trends in subscribers’ attitudes.

Content services offered to users need to be made less linear and more contextual by adapting them to viewers’ way of thinking. One clear conclusion can already be drawn; it better be “easy to play, yet hard to master”.

Easy to Play; Hard to Master
Service providers must make it easy for any user to consume content – “easy to play” – while still enabling advanced users to enjoy more depth and wiggle room – “hard to master.” The challenge is to design one system that offers the sophisticated features demanded by advanced users while not compromising the ease of use for beginners and average users.

We can illustrate this idea in the familiar context of Apple and Android. Apple, which is fairly straightforward, reflects the “less is more” approach. It is easy to play and not hard to master. In contrast, Android is not as “easy to play” for most smartphone users. However, as they become more advanced after familiarizing themselves with all of Android’s features and customizations, users can turn it into quite a gem that serves their purposes very well. But note that neither Apple nor Android is both “easy to play” and “hard to master.” As a result, there are divided teams in the smartphone market. If a service provider can incorporate both approaches, there will be a win-win for all parties.

Seamless and Enjoyable Data
As most of you have probably experienced while watching content, it is common for most viewers to have many questions about actors and other aspects of the content. Today, these questions can be answered easily with data available from a variety of sources. In fact, it is believed that 80% of these questions can be answered with 20% of the data. That data has to be packaged in a way that creates a seamless and enjoyable user experience.

This is where service operators play an important role. In addition to adapting to the growing number of users and providing them with an engaging experience, service providers must also ensure that the content itself and user data are protected.

The Engagement Model
The first step in creating an optimal experience for viewers is providing them with
Basic Services. These services have to be open and flexible in order to adapt to constant technological advances.

Personalization is the next step. Operators can personalize their basic services, such as VOD, by referring to users’ social profiles and behaviors analysis to help them create enhanced services that satisfy each subscriber’s tastes. This “personalization” then encourages social interaction and increases the opportunities for purchasing content.

Enrichment is the final step in the model. The next generation of metadata provides relevant data about what the viewer is watching and can generate an endless amount of magazines on specific topics related to the content on second screen application. This promises full engagement and guarantees a total, satisfying package.

Enjoy the second part of the “Operators Survival Guide” session in the clip below, and check out the slideshow used in the TV Connect 2013 presentation.