News Execs Sees Hard Disk Future

[by Mike Butcher @ MIPCOM] MIPCOM “CEO Superpanel” featured – naturally enough – some big CEOs. The theme for the panel was the the threats and opportunities in the Tv business, in light of the internet, mobile 3G and Video-On-Demand.
It featured former BBC Director General and current HIT Entertainment Chairman Greg Dyke, Roger Lynch, CEO of UK-based IPTV company Homechoice/VideoNet, Yun-Joo Jung, CEO of Korean national broadcaster KBS, Robert Dowling, President Film and Performing Arts, VNU Business Publications and Publisher/Editor of The Hollywood Reporter, Omar Javaid of Qualcom MediaFLO USA, and Abe Peled, CEO of UK-based digital pay television solution provider NDS. It was chaired by Chairman of APAX Media Advisory Board Neil Blackley.

CEO Super panel Mipcom 05

However, the most interesting things were said by Peled and Dyke.
Peled in particular, said he thought there were two key trends to take note of: hard disk based video recorders and the rise of TV over broadband.

“Today personal video recorders (which NDS providers to 9 different operators) can hold 150 hours of video, and this is heading towards 300 hours,” he said

“Compare that with normal TV watching, and you see there is a paradigm shift going on, because it’s easier to access a hard disk of content you probably want to watch than surfing a huge EPG of content you only might want to watch. It’s now about not “what’s on”, but “what do I want to watch?” Time-shifting of Tv content also allows premium content to be delivered direct to the hard disk.”

He said research shows that 40% of PVR owners them watch only what’s on the disk rather than the live TV. They also watch more TV than people who don’t have a PVR.

Peled also believes there is a move to branded content rather than a branded channel.

Live TV will continue, but the amount of live TV which is “date TV” is lessening.

What does it mean for advertising? Well, one thing is that the memory recall from skipping ads is actualy higher because you have to fiddle with the remote!

Hard disks will reach 100% of PayTV because the reduce churn, and that becomes a channel for secure movie downloads and even targetted advertising based on usage.

The second main trend is broadband, there’s increasing entertainment there.

Recently Peled saw a a set-top box which is territorially de-coupled, can access video clips all over the world, all integrated into the box. It could also have 200 channels of live TV, 200 hours of hard disk TV programmed by user, you name it.

“Slingbox is a real eye opener” he added, in a worried tone…

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