CES has always been about gadgety goodness of the future and this year was no let down. And televisions took center stage.

 With significant improvements to picture quality (forget HD, why aren’t we shooting in ultra-high def / 4K, or even 8K!) and the ever-increasing screen size (and still managing to shave the depth down to just more than a few millimeters – see LG’s 4mm OLED) TVs continue to be positioned as the dominant viewing screen for the household. While nearly all of the TVs showcased at CES were “smart”, on average most of the manufacturers said that only 50–60% of their TVs hitting the shelves this year would be “smart”.

 Today, more TVs are now connected to internet services like premium/freemium video over-the-top (OTT) content from the likes of Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube, as well include other features like games (e.g.; Angry Birds) and social connecting/sharing (e.g.; Facebook, Twitter). Is the whole truly greater than the sum of its parts – are these features splashed on the home screen what makes a TV smart?

 During the CES Smart TV 2012 Outlook panel, it was noted that while something like Angry Birds can help sell a TV, most consumers do not utilize this feature for very long after setting up their new TV. In fact, on average after ONE month users typically stop interacting with these additional apps and then rely primarily on the video discovery-enabled applications to find what they want or what they may be interested in.

 What was interesting about the discussion in this panel, and was also discussed in the Video 3 Screens and Beyond panel, was how the groups agreed on the fact that in most households with more than one person the TV was not a personal device, but rather a shared platform. While this wasn’t a revolutionary statement, it seems obvious that attempts at recreating the success of personalization and content exploration on a mobile devices, is one step forward with two steps back. Why reinvent the wheel?

 The best screen is not always the biggest screen – it is based on the user, their location, and the content. Why would anyone really want to tweet from their sparkling new ultra-thin 55 inch OLED television? With consumers embracing (literally and figuratively) their mobile devices as their personalized device for discovering, interacting, and consuming — why not create more opportunity for multiscreen content, mobile synchronization, and ultimately customized experiences driven via mobile devices? 

 With advances in Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) through evolving technologies like watermarking or fingerprinting digital audio and/or video, live or on-demand content AND advertisements can be identified for the consumer. The potential for deeper insights into programming is truly amazing — imagine being able to instantly swipe for an actor’s IMDB profile, when else they appear in the show you’re watching, what other programs you can see them on, post to their Facebook page or engage with them in a real-time conversation via Twitter, learn more about where a scene was shot, and yes even where you too can buy that sweater the actress is wearing. The potential for product placement and even interactive experiences related to actual commercials is nearly limitless, and if done effectively with consumer engagement in mind the measurable engagement results could offer a whole new level of transparency, optimization and even targeting for advertisers.

 Consumers win with more entertaining and educational resources, and marketers win with new avenues for monetization and measurement.



Ryan K Manchee | Director of Innovation Strategy, MediaMind