When I first heard the rumours about Sky Glass just before its launch in October 2021, I was really quite surprised and I have to say a bit confused. Sky was about to launch their very long-awaited and anticipated Sky Q over IP product and it was not a set-top box but a whole television. What’s more is that it wasn’t actually part of the Sky Q ecosystem. It took me a couple of days to recover, reflect and realise the strategic brilliance behind this bold move. It positioned Sky against their future competition pivoting away from the battles with their past competitors. Read more →
4 posts categorized "PVR/DVR"
Pretty much since the launch of the Apple App store back in 2008, there has been a consensus that the future of TV interface was app stores. App Stores provide a model for personalization, innovation and protection of content owner’s brand identity. But does the app store model and applications in general really work for TV? Is there an alternative? Given the success of app stores for mobile devices it is hard to challenge them, but I don’t think they work well enough and are not the future of TV interfaces. I do however have an alternative. Read more →
My recent appearance at the Set-Top Box Gateway Summit in London picked up a bit of coverage (mainly from CSI who hosted the event). I've been meaning to post an article on the topic of the "OTT Tipping Point", which I have been researching, but the quotes, which I really did say, that were picked up by CSI summarise the topic well. Watch this space for the full analysis. Read more →
Thoughts on the Television User Experience
November 01, 2010
In the pay-tv industry content is still king, but this statement doesn’t mean what it use to. The pay-tv industry is largely built on content exclusivity, exclusive rights to sports, films, channels and series. But that exclusivity is being steadily eroded. Today, consumers general have a choice to get the same content from either a pay-TV service provider or from a legal or illegal internet source, and finding content on the internet is getting easier and easier. A TV service provider’s defense against this is the user experience they provide. A strong and compelling user experience can actually make over the top services a positive addition to a service provider’s services. Read more →