MGEITF 2010: Canvas bows down to Google TV

If you can only have one thing, go for Google TV, said Project Canvas’ marketing director Tim Hunt to a room full of surprised delegates at this year’s MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

A strangely inept performance by the Canvas representative, in one of MGEITF’s most-revealing sessions ‘RIP Scheduled TV?’, was fairly disastrous for the internet video-on-demand service, which is backed by BBC, ITV and Channel 4 among other key players.

Hunt, although facing rather unbalanced questioning from the sessions’ chair Steve Hewlett, failed to drum up support for Canvas and as a result, let talk of Google TV dominate the debate.

An impressive video about what Google TV really is, and a knowledgeable intro from Google’s Jill Szuchmacher, made the service look far superior to Canvas, despite a few significant flaws – the most obvious, of course, is that the service hasn’t got any customers yet.

It was difficult not to get carried away by the promise of Google TV – a complete entertainment device, which offers television, the web, videos, music, photos, gaming, apps and a customised home screen – but in reality, Szuchmacher was quick to admit that the product is primarily a navigation device.

Yes, it removes the need to have your laptop in front of you or your smartphone in your hand while at home watching TV, but research consistently shows that audiences don’t actually want this kind of clutter on their TV screen.

Szuchmacher was unable to refute the claims that people are actually resistant to convergence on this scale, although she suggested that people don’t know what they want, citing Facebook as an example.

There is also the issue of consumers needing to purchase a new Google TV-enabled set. Internet-enabled television may well be the future but right now, we’re only just recovering from a recession and forking out for a new pricey set isn’t necessarily feasible for the majority.

Unsurprisingly, Google’s main aim for this initially is to create more search revenue, but there would be no monetisation of programme searching, at least until a critical mass of users have been built.

Canvas, on the other hand, has one clear advantage right now – to the tune of 10 million households. The opportunity is obvious; it has the ability to bring catch-up TV to the Freeview audience. It already has an audience of scale, it will be able to offer very sophisticated targeted advertising and therefore be able to charge higher premiums, and it is aimed at everyone (not just the tech-savvy viewers who are more likely to want Google TV).

During the MacTaggart lecture, Mark Thompson made a number of references to Project Canvas, stating that it was “entirely open”, and suggesting that advertising revenues through Canvas would “replace” traditional advertising revenues, although he quickly changed that to “augment”.

Despite all we know about Canvas, Hunt failed to sound convincing. Instead, he stumbled over questions about whether Canvas was a “limited option”; why the platform wasn’t going to have an internet browser; and whether there was a need for public money to pay for it.

Channel 4’s Sarah Rose, however, was clearer. For her, the two services aren’t mutually exclusive – they offer different formats for viewers and different ways to monetise content. Her support for the project was also apparent – when asked why Channel 4 would “bother putting cash in to Canvas”, she replied saying that the platform needs industry support and involvement from the start.

As an aside, Rose also commented she is amazed that people aren’t watching less television than before (on-demand is still less than 8% of total TV viewing).