• Shirley Brown from Ovum rather questionably predicted that personalization of ITV would only start in around 2005.
• Chris Boyce, director of strategic business development/networks & connected devices for Pace Micro, predicted that by 2004 there will be 150 million digital STBs deployed worldwide, 25% of which will be digital video recorders (DVRs). He also commented that the latest research shows that future users want multi-purpose appliances that are easy to use, voice activated, and capable of remote error detection and resolution. He further predicted that in the not-too-distant future, the boundaries between different types of TV content will become increasingly blurred by convergence. A magazine-style, football/soccer-based application was shown as an example of this; it allows the user to get news, background information and stats, together with on-demand clips showing highlights-all tailored to his/her individual preferences (for example, a particular player).
• Garry Stephen, managing director, DIVA Europe, gave a largely descriptive but interesting analysis of the economic and technical issues involved with a VOD system. Considering the extent to which VOD, in the eyes of many delegates, appeared to be the really big ITV tool of the future, it was perhaps surprising to hear that the maximum storage capacity of such technology for the next 2 years or so will be about 1200 films. Perhaps the most memorable lesson of his speech was how important it is for operators to realize that consumers approach VOD saying "I want what I want and I want it NOW!" Therefore, he argued, the revenue model of downloading content for viewing later is unlikely to work ("the Moviefly model will ultimately fail"), and operators need to ensure that their service caters to everyone all the time by "presenting an illusion of unlimited choice," regardless of technical limitations.
• Naomi Climer, director of technical operations, ITV Digital, provided insight into the difficulties faced by a digital terrestrial television operator when (and some would say if) it comes to interactive convergence for them. Her main contention was that the real "killer application" of interactiveTV has yet to be found, and "the predictions of networked homes in 2005 are still just that." While she stated that "VOD may not be for us," the future looks bright for ITV Digital: Climer revealed that the company is considering a DSL-enabled STB to complement its already-announced partnership with Nokia to market the amazing looking Nokia Media Terminal. With the NMT seemingly able to do or connect to anything, [itvt] envisions that it may well become the "must have" of 2002. Also of interest was her observation that ITV Digital "supports open standards" and her suggestion that subscribers may be able to select content which would then be automatically downloaded overnight for viewing the next day, taking advantage of digital terrestrial's increased bandwidth at night (due to the fact that many ITV Digital channels are not 24/7). It was also interesting to note the number of conference delegates representing different digital terrestrial platforms across Europe - it would appear that most EU countries will have at least one such operator, if not several, each broadcasting to different geographic regions. Investors in European cable networks, beware.
• In a speech notable for its colorful language, Ellis Watson, managing director of Celador, the producers of the "world's most popular TV program ever, 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire,'" said the main issue is not interactive convergence, but business convergence. He also stated that any ITV business not already looking ahead to the year 2005 will have missed the boat by that time, having been superseded by companies we haven't even heard of yet. By 2005, he predicted, the UK will be using 2Mb return paths en-masse as part of its TV installation, allowing audiences to watch whatever they want to watch, whenever they want it, in return for a small per-program fee. Watson also confirmed that advanced interactivity for WWTBAM is being trialed by RTL in Germany, ahead of the launch of a slimmed-down version (due to technical limitations) via ITV Digital in the UK "within 3 weeks" (incidentally, the latest series of WWTBAM started on Saturday in the UK, with no interactivity as yet). Watson was rightly confident (we think) that this app will increase awareness of interactiveTV. However, despite his glowing optimism about the future of his brand, this author, for one, is not so sure. Regrettably, no one succeeded in asking him whether he thought WWTBAM would be around in its current form in 2005.
• Sales & marketing director for Dominos Pizza, Chris Moore, revealed that that company's multi-platform strategy has clearly become a success. Use of the ITV service has now grown so rapidly (sales of 100,000 pizzas a week), that the company is now about to introduce new computer systems which enable orders to be sent directly to individual branches instead of being re-directed centrally. Moore also predicted that Telewest, which currently has more interactive vendors than any other UK platform, will have to drop some of these services in an attempt to reduce its increasing debt - although this is currently around only half the £16 billion level of rival, NTL.
• Katherine Gershon, head of ITV for Thomas Cook, admitted that her company is "disappointed" by its ITV progress. Either consumers simply don't use ITV to book travel services, or too many clicks are currently required to initially access services (TC operates on all UK platforms), she concluded. She explained that, ideally, TC would prefer either one-click access into its service, or the ability to run that service as an ETV app supporting a travel channel or program. However, higher costs and legal issues relating to TC's ownership structure (the fact that it sells its own holidays is a problem under UK law) currently make this difficult.
• Justin Dewhirst, director of marketing, Energis (operator of the forthcoming brightBlue service on SkyDigital) was not in a position to say anything of real substance, as initial details about the service were to be announced the following day (as reported in [itvt]'s last issue). However, he did reveal that Energis was also looking at moving into ITV services production, and that brightBlue "would be more customer-focused" than Open.
• Swedish VOD/broadcast-via-IP outfit, Pronto, was very much in evidence at the conference, having several delegates, a live display showcasing the company's impressive service, and a speaker, founder and chairman, Jon Bohmer. His presentation provided intriguing insights into a possible future of ITV where broadcasters would effectively cease to exist as such, being replaced by a convergence of broadcasting, VOD, the DVR, data services, the DVD, and the Internet-all available via a simple-to-use STB. The Microsoft X-box was cited as an initial example of this. He argued that XML open-source coding would become the ITV production language of choice, and "Broadband TV," dedicated IP connections as opposed to the Internet, would fast become the basis of these new mass-market services. Networks and content would "crucially" be localized, one-stop portals offering everything, and increasing financial viability and quality of such services. To guarantee the maintenance of broadcast quality, content would be cached at either the broadcast headend or the local telephone exchange. In future, he predicted, advertisers would actually "pay consumers to watch content in return for supplying detailed feedback." Although this is all a very interesting prophecy, [itvt] wonders realistically how geographically widespread such a vision could actually be, whether it could really be implemented on a global basis. Clearly, while Bohmer presented a feasible scenario for North America, Western Europe, and Scandinavia, it will surely be a long time before it is commonplace elsewhere.
• Steve Benedik, executive producer of BSkyB's "Sky News Active" app, stressed the importance of keeping ITV "simple, clear, quick and compelling" to use, and he emphasized the point by highlighting the success of Sky's voting, gaming and betting applications on the SkyDigital platform. The most successful SNA votes to date have attracted 30,000-40,000 votes each; it is estimated there are 1.2 million regular gamers using Open on a regular basis, making games by far the most popular application (Tetris alone is played an average of 42,000 times daily); and 75,000 subscribers have a betting account to date, over a million bets having been placed so far this year at an average of £7 a bet. Another popular application-although this wasn't foreseen-was the "gallery-cam," part of SNA's General Election night app; it allows viewers to watch the studio gallery, and internal statistics revealed it was the most popular feature on election night (maybe this tells us there's room for subscription-based Webcam-type TV channels). Commenting on the personalization features of TiVo, he said there is still quite a way to go before they are perfected-rogue results are currently being widely encountered with the UK version in Sky's tests. Looking ahead, he revealed that, in October/November, Sky will not just be relaunching Open as Sky Active, but that a contextualised "ITV Services" menu will be introduced accompanying each Sky-branded TV channel (including for the first time, movies); this will supposedly allow easier access to related ITV services on the SkyDigital platform. Unfortunately, no further information is currently available on this.
• In a speech in which Sky was repeatedly knocked for supposedly not allowing the BBC to launch its ITV apps and text service on SkyDigital earlier, BBC head of interactiveTV, Scott Gronmark, emphasized not just the popularity of the BBC's apps to date, but also the difficulty of ensuring that these apps are available in some form across all UK platforms. He also provided insights into an "experimental" app that will accompany the upcoming "Walking with Beasts" documentary series in November. This app will not only offer program background information, but an alternative narration, which will provide explanation in more scientific terminology than usual, and will offer more in-depth scientific information-i.e. will look at the science from a more "but why is this?" perspective. This is interesting for the ITV community in general as it will be the first occasion on which the BBC has utilized interactivity to embrace its Public Service education remit.
• In a presentation largely explaining the UK TV regulatory structure, as defined by legislation and the ITC, it was interesting to note that Greg Bensberg, ITC's project director of digital planning, implied that BSkyB, Telewest, two lesser-known companies, Precis and Elmsdale, and apparently others, have already effectively been granted DSL broadcast licenses. This development was publicly confirmed Thursday - a reality that could dramatically change the face of UK digital broadcasting over the coming months, if the presentations at this conference are anything to go by. Note that Video Networks is currently the only official holder of such a national license.

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