March 8, 2012 · 10:12 am

Detective Movies and Broadband

When I watch a thriller or detective movie, I find myself paying a lot of attention to minor things – a front desk clerk, a random event like what’s playing on a TV in a bar – because inevitably the end of the movie involves something that was hinted at earlier.  The key is usually something to which no one seems to be paying attention but would have been recognized as highly significant had they been.

I thought of that when I read a couple of articles over the last week and as I’m going through the reports of yesterday’s new iPad announcement.  Let’s see if the pieces – none of which is seen as a big deal – get you thinking about the ending as they do to me.

First off, there was the report from Nielsen that looks at cord-cutters – those homes that have abandoned cable TV and are using the Internet and over the air signals to watch the programming they previous got via cable:

Though less than 5 percent of TV households, homes with broadband Internet and free, broadcast TV are on the rise—growing 22.8 percent over last year. These households are also found to exhibit interesting video behaviors: they stream video twice as much as the general population and watch half as much TV.

Even among those who haven’t cut the cord, there is a shift to video and Internet provided by the telephone companies:

The number of homes subscribing to wired cable has decreased 4.1 percent in the past year at the same time that telephone company-provided and satellite TV have seen increases of 21.1 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Maybe it’s in part due to higher bit-rates available from companies traditionally seen as ISP’s?  After all, access to broadband Internet is a big priority:

Demonstrating that consumers are increasingly making Internet connectivity a priority, 75.3 percent pay for broadband Internet (up from 70.9% last year); 90.4 percent pay for cable, telephone company-provided TV or satellite. Homes with both paid TV and broadband increased 5.5 percent since last year.

OK – that’s a few of the “minor” characters – nothing huge there.  Now add this:

Across Europe, the Web has surpassed TV as the primary platform for 18-to-35 viewers to watch their favorite sport, according to new research conducted by Havas Sport & Entertainment for the Global Sports Forum Barcelona.

And this:

Stateside, the evidence suggests that more sports nuts are choosing to forgo pay-TV services for Internet services. According to The NPD Group, iVOD users reduced the time they spent watching television shows, news and sports via pay-TV companies by 12% between August 2010 and August 2011.

Every major sports league has some sort of online pay package available, which is not new.  Now let’s add in the new iPad which is becoming the second screen of choice for a lot of people along with an improved AppleTV that makes putting streamed content on to your HD television a snap.  Suddenly, we might be looking at a milestone (and the end of the movie for some businesses).  Live sports is one of the (and I think THE) killer apps.  Up until recently it’s been hard (or illegal) to find your live sport of choice outside of pay TV available through a cable operator.  Suddenly, higher speed broadband married to better devices married to that content being available via your ISP and the ability to throw it on to your big screen TV with no loss of quality while marrying it to apps, data, and social interfaces might be a twist no one saw coming.  Except I think maybe now we can.

What do you think?

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March 7, 2012 · 10:36 am

Mess Effect

I don’t know if you’re a gamer (in the video game sense, not the hockey sense) but even if you’re not you might be aware that the latest installment in the Mass Effect video game series is out. It’s going to be one of the biggest releases of the year and the buzz has been good.  More importantly to Electronic Arts and Bioware (the developer), pre-sales were big.  It’s the third game in a series that has many passionate users who’ve been immersed in it for five years.

So why would I call this post “mess effect?”  Because despite all the success to date, EA and Bioware have created a release that’s precipitating a mess that has already alienated a substantial potion of their most loyal customers.  It serves as a reminder to us all.

In Mass Effect 1, gamers were given the option to create their own customized version of the main character, Commander Shepard.  Obviously, if a gamer made Shepard in their own image, they felt a bit closer to character.  At the end of the game, they could bring the character forward into Mass Effect 2, continuing the close attachment.  One might expect the folks who took the time to modify the character as well as to carry it forward to be hard-core.  Another name for that is “best customers” or “brand advocates.”

So here is ME3 (as it’s known) and although it’s a few months late, it’s met with great anticipation by those folks who’ve seen Shepard through many tough times, have helped save the Earth and have done so with an avatar that’s near and dear to them.  Except ME3 won’t import the previously created Shepard.  That’s right: for folks who are just entering the series now, it’s not an issue but for the folks who have been most loyal and brought their character with them, perhaps for five years, they have to start over.  Apparently, it’s almost impossible to replicate your existing Shepard on the new system, even from scratch.

Bioware says they’re working on a fix but will this take days?  Weeks?  Months?  Meanwhile, the gamer message boards are filling up with complaints about a peripheral issue and not with praise for the meat of the game play.  It’s a mess.  I know it probably won’t impact the overall success of the game, especially once it’s patched, but why would a company not take into consideration their best customers first?  Some of the folks who played ME1 and 2 used the defaults; others made tiny mods that are easy to replicate.  But the people who spent hours tweaking Shepard, the customers most immersed in your product, are screwed, at least for now.

As we’re implementing new versions of existing products – web sites, apps, new recipes, whatever – we need to start with those who’ve blessed us with their patronage before we worry a lot about attracting new customers.  After all, if the hard-core is happy, they’ll help spread the word.  If they’re not, no amount of marketing can totally overcome it.

Thoughts?

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March 6, 2012 · 10:44 am

You, Everywhere

A study came out a couple of weeks ago and I made note of it to share with you all.  Entitled “Smart Devices: Evolution and Convergence,” it comes to us from the folks eMarketer (given yesterday’s post I guess I’m on a research roll this week…).  The findings aren’t particularly surprising but they do point to something that gets overlooked.

All of the fantastic technologies that have evolved over the last two decades are empty vessels for the most part.  Obviously most require software of some sort to operate.  In many cases, they require something else, as the study’s findings show:

Ereaders, connected game consoles, internet-enabled TVs and other connected gadgets have also become essential to a society that demands instant and constant access to digital media. And that digital media is the technologies’ raison d’être.

“Without movies, TV shows, games, photos, books, magazines, newspapers, video clips and music, few would care to own a tablet, a touchscreen smartphone, a connected console or an internet-enabled TV,” said Verna. “As consumers continue to gravitate toward digital media consumption, and as content owners and device manufacturers continue to find ways to meet the demand for it, more content will become available in the digital domain.”

In other words, make great content and they will come.  Given the changes in how search algorithms work, great content starts a virtuous circle of discovery, consumption, sharing, and further discovery.  “The platform” has become less of an issue although smart companies are tweaking their content to be platform appropriate.  If you’ve ever been on a mobile device and hit a site that’s not optimized for mobile, you know how the platform can actually get in the way.  Same issue if you’re only using Flash for video – kiss many audiences on tablets goodbye.

What you want, when you want it, and how you want it is the mantra.  Learn it today so you’ll be in business tomorrow.

 

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