Eric Pfanner
International Herald Tribune
09-21-2009
Mixing the media on your TV; From television to the Internet and back again ; Hybrid services to allow viewers to benefit from a merger of the media
Byline: Eric Pfanner
Type: News
Why would viewers, who can already get dozens of channels over the air, via cable or satellite or through their telephone lines, need yet another way to watch television?
Internet television has become so popular that some European broadcasters want to put it on TV -- the one in the living room.
Within several months, viewers in Germany with specially equipped televisions may be able to watch public broadcasters' Internet TV services, which let users catch up on the television shows of the previous week, whenever they choose, via their computers.
In Britain, the BBC and several partners are working on a more ambitious project to bring what is called catch-up TV and a variety of other programming and interactive services to television sets as soon as next year.
Why would viewers, who can already get dozens of channels over the air, via cable or satellite or through their telephone lines, need yet another way to watch TV?
Catch-up services, like the BBC's iPlayer in Britain and Hulu in the United States, have attracted millions of users on the Internet, allowing them to fit TV viewing into busy schedules, but they have been available only on computers.
The new technology, called hybrid television because it uses over- the-air transmission as well as broadband connections, would do more. By combining television and the Internet, it would turn the remote control into a powerful tool of digital convergence.
Supporters of the technology say it would open up possibilities like those enabled by Apple's iPhone, which allows independent developers to create customized applications. Imagine watching a cooking show that ended with a page of links to similar, archived programs or to the Web sites of online retailers selling the ingredients, for example.
"This crosses the Rubicon," said Gavin Patterson, chief executive of the retail division of BT, the British telecommunications company, which has joined the BBC and two other broadcasters, ITV and Five, in the hybrid TV project. "It is truly the moment when the Internet and the television come together."
There are already plenty of ways to watch TV on a PC, and rudimentary Internet-enabled televisions have been on the market for several years. But generally these options allow only separate Web surfing or TV viewing, without blending the two into a single medium.
Many broadcasters have been wary about embracing the Internet for fear of cannibalizing their audiences and undermining more lucrative TV advertising. But now, with TV ad revenue plunging anyway during the recession, some broadcasters are reconsidering that approach. And even European public television providers, which are less reliant on advertising -- or, in the case of the BBC, entirely free of it -- worry about how they will maintain audiences at a time when other media options are proliferating.
Analysts say hybrid television could re-engage viewers and advertisers who have grown bored with conventional television. Screen Digest, a research firm, expects Project Canvas, as the British hybrid TV partnership is code-named, to attract 2.3 million households by 2012. "Canvas has the potential to change the landscape of the U.K. TV business," said Marie Bloomfield, an analyst at Screen Digest in London.
Richard Halton, who leads the BBC's work on so-called Internet protocol television, said Project Canvas was a natural outgrowth of Freeview, a digital, over-the-air TV system that beams out dozens of channels, much like cable and satellite services, but free of charge. It is the main TV system in 10 million of the 25 million British homes with televisions.
Indeed, Canvas is called a hybrid technology because it would use the Freeview system to provide regularly scheduled programming, while a broadband connection would deliver Internet services as well as on-demand content. While some of these programs might require payment, nobody would have to subscribe. "It's about perpetuating and strengthening free-to-air television, which we are very committed to in the U.K.," Mr. Halton said.
Before Canvas succeeds Freeview, though, it faces regulatory scrutiny. The BBC's involvement in the project could face opposition from British Sky Broadcasting, the leading pay-TV provider in Britain, which resents the BBC's expansion into new areas.
In a filing with the BBC Trust, which oversees the BBC, Sky says the proposals for Canvas "appear to position the BBC as market maker in an area where commercial operators have made, and continue to make, significant investments, such that the potential for distortion of competition is manifest."
The trust is set to rule this autumn on whether Project Canvas will proceed.
Sky still has a trump card in the competition with other television services: its ownership of the rights to show English Premier League soccer matches and Hollywood movies.
BT has been trying to develop its own pay-TV service, using broadband, but so far has 430,000 customers, compared with 9 million for Sky. BT hopes Canvas will make its pay-TV offering more attractive. It is also trying to persuade British regulators to require Sky to offer its premium content to rivals at reasonable rates, which they could then use to lure viewers away from Sky.
"We do think there's a potential to bring back customers, and those customers have to come from somewhere," Mr. Patterson said.
Unlike existing pay-TV services, Project Canvas would be open to rival providers, each of which could offer its own package of movies, sports or other programming. All of this would be organized in a single electronic program guide, controlled by one remote device and accessible via a search engine. To use these services, viewers would need new set-top boxes, which the partners aim to have on the market next year.
The German-led hybrid TV project, which has lined up support from several French broadcasters and a range of technology companies, is less far-reaching, seeking simply to create a set of hybrid TV standards for broadcasters and makers of TVs and set-top boxes. Broadcasters could then create and market their own hybrid services, rather than working through a central platform, with a single program guide, as envisioned in Britain.
Klaus Merkel, project manager for Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television, or HbbTV, at the German Institute for Broadcast Technology, a partner in the project, said it would be easier to bring new services to market if there were no "gatekeeper" involved.
Some new televisions soon to be introduced in Germany will be able to connect directly to the hybrid services, allowing viewers to watch catch-up services from the German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF as soon as this autumn, he said.
"If you give freedom to all the content providers, this will simplify the introduction," he said.
Keywords: Broadcasting Group PLC (Org)
Copyright International Herald Tribune Sep 21, 2009
