Fundamentals of Web- Connected TV

Libby Miller, Vicky Buser (BBC), Dan Brickley (VU)

Contents

• About the Social TV Usecase in NoTube• Trends• Our Use cases• Business Drivers• Approach• Prototype 1: Real time interaction• Prototype 2: Talking about a TV programme• Prototype 3: Browsing a large video archive• What we have learned so far• Planned user testing• Fundamentals of Web Connected TV

Social TV Usecase

• Led by BBC Research and Development Department

• Provide use cases and prototypes to guide the work of the technical workpackages in NoTube

"The objective of work package 7c is to exploit state of the art technologies in providing Internet-based social features for television."

Trends

• Increasing use of online social networks to talk about TV

• Frequent and increasing use of 'second screens' such as a laptop, tablet or mobile phone while watching TV

• Growing number of second screen services and platforms designed around creating 'Social TV' experiences

• More and more internet connected TVs

Usecases

Our usecases are based on these observations and chosen from a large number of storyboards we have created

Usecases

1. How can I discuss what I'm watching more easily?

2. How can I interact with other people at the same time as watching TV?

3. How can I find interesting programmes to watch on-demand?

Business Drivers

• Reaching large numbers of people simultaneously: how can we enhance the experience of live TV?

• How can we make the best use of a large programme archive?

Approach

• Describe a hypothesis• Create prototypes quickly• User testing (in progress!)

All the prototypes use second screens for the bulk of the activity

Prototype 1: Real time interaction

• Hypothesis: people like to interact in real time while watching TV and see what others are doing

• The idea is that you can vote for different options as the TV programme progresses and see what others are doing

Prototype 1: Real time interaction

Prototype 2: EPG Autocompleter

• Hypothesis: small impediments can stop people talking about TV programmes on the social web

• Autocompletion is a very simple idea, but one that shows how you can connect the TV to the web without any physical connection

• The prototype finds a URL for a programme as you start typing the title or channel, ordered by time and channel

Prototype 2: Talking about a TV Programme

Autocomplete with Twitter

Prototype 3: Browsing a large video archive

• Hypothesis: it’s more interesting to browse a video collection when the connections between programmes are unusual and diverse

• Goals are 'hours of fascinated clicking' and being able to easily share these links with others

Prototype 3: Browsing a large video archive (demo)

How it works (1)Uses TV-centric links between programmes

(‘Lonclass’ TV classification system)

And ones that are connected by more than one link

Picks programmes that are connected to other programmes using many different types of links

So that diverse but relevant programmes are surfaced

How it works (2)

• Maps from Lonclass to English Wordnet• Maps from English Wordnet to Korean

Wordnet• We can search and browse using Korean

Wordnet terms

Benefits of this Approach

• People can find programmes of interest without anyone else having watched them

• It can provide interesting explanations about why programmes are suggested

Important Features

• The URL is unique, resolvable and shareable– From a content owner’s point of view, there’s no

point in one person finding something interesting if they can’t tell anyone else about it

• The user can browse comfortably and privately on a second screen and then play the video on a shared larger screen– Making the browsing an interesting experience

rather than a frustrating one

Planned User Testing

• Can these links based on shared Lonclass terms keep users clicking and help them find programmes to watch?

• Are there certain types of links (people, places) that are more interesting than others?

• Will people use and enjoy interacting with each other while watching TV?

What we have learned so far

• A TV is one device among many competing for attention

• People use TV in a very social fashion. Sometimes a TV programme is just 'something to talk about’

• The social web is about linking. It's the usual way of talking about things on the Web. If you can't refer to something by URL, you can't share it

• It's my social network but our TV - so mixing the public and the private in one screen can lead to problems

Fundamentals of web connected TV: Let people link!

Thanks for listening

And many thanks to our collaborators, in particular to:

• Teresa Sanghee Kim (KT)• Veronique Malaise (VU)• Ronald Siebes (VU)• Mo McRoberts (Project Baird

http://projectbaird.com/)

Visit our blog: http://blog.notube.tv