I want to let you in on a trade secret: big-time executive bloggers have handlers. If you don’t have a handler you’re playing in the minor leagues. Presidents and First Ladies have handlers so it’s an honor and privilege to be handled.
My handlers have advised me to be very careful when writing things that might offend our customers. While I’ve taken this point to heart, this week’s subject, which will be further delineated by Jeremy Edmonds during a Cable Tec Expo panel Oct. 30, demands that I throw caution to the wind and say that cable operators seem to in the midst of a conundrum when it comes to VoD.
On the one hand, they’ve done the best that they could with limited set-top box resources and created platforms that dramatically increase subscribers’ video options. On the other, they’ve been unable to fully monetize that platform because of cumbersome user interfaces that make it difficult for subscribers to find the content they want.
To bridge the gap between those two issues, operators need to find ways to open up the VoD navigation experience, so that subscribers are more able to be connected with content that interests them. The solution? Low-latency, feature-rich VoD menus that provide personalization and intuitive search and discovery.
Whether we like it or not, consumers are more in love with search and discovery than TSA agents. It’s obvious what search means; being able to find the shows or genre of shows they want at the click of a button. Discovery, in its broadest sense, means finding others of like minds, whether it’s through an intelligent recommendation engine or through your social network, the 21st Century front porch in the neighborhood.
Current VoD menus come up short in both of these categories.
Cable operators now have the ability to implement menus that actually add value, instead of take away value. These new applications can drive subscribers where they want to go — and, even better, where they might pay to go — in a more perfect offering. To reach this goal, we have to shoot for the moon and settle into the “cloud” to find network-based applications that perform as flawlessly on legacy set-top boxes as they do on tomorrow’s devices.
It’s funny how terms enter the vernacular. Sometimes it can be something as mundane as the information superhighway which morphed cleverly into road kill on the information superhighway to describe a failed broadband effort. Sometimes it can be something like DVD, which, believe it or not, means digital versatile disc.
