iHollywood Forum: Mobile TV or Video-on-demand?

While at the 3GSM Conference last week, I managed to take some time out to attend the iHollywood Forum. iHollywood presented a mouth-watering roster of speakers but it was also obvious that many couldn't find the time to come visit Barcelona Football Stadium when schedules are rammed full of meetings with important clients. This was a pity as there were a lot of great ideas about mobile TV and video that could be taken away, some of which I'll outline below.

Cater for passive and active viewers
With all the talk about participation, engagment and the "lean-forward" consumption of media we have started to see with new media and mobile, it was refreshing to hear Jason Wells (SVP, Mobile Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television International) remind us that consumers come with different expectations of engagement. Although it's the active media consumers that are giving ad execs sleepless nights, there's still a healthy amount of ol'-fashioned TV watching going on and no-one expects this to change radically overnight. It will change though and neither should we forget that it's the active media consumers who are often the key targets for advertisers as they also often tend to be the most influential in their purchasing decisions. Although this bit of Gladwellian wisdom has recently been challenged, it still holds that even 1% matters more than you think.

Both streaming and video-on-demand are accomodated on mobile
Anders Wannfors from iMobile rolled out the Mobile TV demo they had carried out for Sweden and pointed towards the fact that 54% of consumers used the broadcast asect of Mobile TV (where the content is streamed from the broadcaster and the consumer merely tunes in) and 46% made use of the video-on-demand options presented to them. The survey was carried out over 6 months, the last 3 of which were paid by the consumer (to avoid the "I'll say anything cos it's free" dilemma that some surveys present) The survey suggests that consumers will quite happily watch broadcast for things that are really live (this still fits in with the immediacy that they are used to and is, essentially, on-demand) but in most cases they like to use their phones to engage in "continuous viewing". You carry the program you were watching at home with you on your mobile. You contune watching your internet video on your TV etc. Video-on-demand was in many people's minds (including mine) the only way that mobile audio-visual content could be presented but that only presented further issues: how do consumers choose? how long will they watch for? what content will they want to see on mobile?


"Tricklecasting"; media sharing across platforms; the "YouTube" model
Out of the 3 ways I can see mobile video progressing, these three methods tend to look the most promising in the long-term. "Tricklecasting" was a new word for me at 3GSM (not on Wikipedia yet!) but is a great way for active consumers to find their media. It refers to the broadcasting of video content over time for viewing later. Given the difficulties of allowing for high quality on-demand video to be streamed on-demand this is an ideal solution. The most impressive example I've seen of this is ShoZu's ZuCast system which nicely integrates consumer web channel creation with mobile video-viewing. It requires the consumer to select their own "ZuCast" which is a collection of different podcast, video-blog, audio channels all queued on the website. This material is then broadcast to the phone which stores the material to be viewed at a later time, effectively allowing on-demand video viewing as far as the consumer is concerned. I love the way that this rethinks the idea of having to provide real "on-demand" content. Yes we want it when we want it, but we often know ahead of time what it's going to be, so let's queue it up ready to go rather than clogging up data channels We want to browse for content in peace and probably online but we want to watch it wherever we happen to be.

The major drawback with ShoZu is that it requires the consumer to be very proactive in setting up their ZuCast (effectively YOU are your own television programmer) but I see no reason for this to hold back business. Lovefilm.com and other online video rental stores have seen considerable success with this "queueing" system and the benefit is that it allows for choice within broadcast, the best of both worlds.

Media sharing systems like OrbTV or Sling Media, are another proven way to synchronise consumers' content to allow continuous viewing. The ideal is not exclusive mobile content but exclusive . Your online and computer media libraries are simply broadcast across to your mobile, simply allowing for device-agnostic media consumption. The beauty of both of these systems is that they allow for a seamless consumer experience (the real benefit of mobility). Have to head off to a party but got a long train journey? Just send the recorded material from TV to mobile.

Finally, YouTube models, such as exist on the internet, where video is truly on-demand and unbound are also an interesting addition to the mobile video mix. In truth, I don't know if consumers like their media to be fully unbound - they just like to be involved in how it's bound up. YouTube with its fragmented, often difficult-to-navigate and patchy content is unlkely to be popular in the long-term on mobile. The benefit of these video services is in their ability to allow user-uploaded content (something ShoZu also allows) and share new material with friends as and when it happens. Again, this is about continuous media experience. you don't have to wait to show others your photos, music or video. You can share it online straight away.

The primary lesson to learn is that consumers want to have free choice (hence fragmented media) but they want it whenever they feel like it (convergent technologies). For more on these ideas you can check out podcasts by Alain Fernando-Santana, Roger Wood or even the latest NPR podcast with a massive social media line-up as advertised on Buzzmachine (this is a long one but full of the latest social media wisdom).