Connected TV – for the smarter viewer?

Greg Grimmer wonders whether TV is actually more imbecilic than ever…

My late stepfather often used a phrase beloved of his generation when referring to the big brown box in the corner of the living room…

“What’s on the idiot box tonight then?”

Now as a child I was never sure whether this idiom meant that those on the box were the ignoramuses – or those who sat round it staring at the dim monochrome image were the cretinous group implied by the oft used insult.

Maybe it was both.

I was reminded of this phrase by three things happening in short order.

• The purchase of a Samsung ‘Smart’ TV in the Grimmer household

• Noticing the theme of the next MediaTel event (Derek, please note plug – I expect my cheque early this month)

• An extremely witty piece of photoshop on Facebook with the caption; “Every time you watch TOWIE a book commits suicide”

So is TV now smart or is it more imbecilic than ever?

Let’s take these three events in order…

My Samsung Smart TV – leaving aside my moronic theme for a second (otherwise I will go off into a tangent about why John Lewis’ brown goods sales are so far down year on year) – let’s discuss why I felt the need to get ahead of the technology curve and purchase an internet ready, 3D ready, WiFi ready, Ready Steady Cook ready TV.

Well the truth is I didn’t. It was a classic case of consumer upgrade ‘pull’ rather than technology ‘push’. In the same way I won’t be buying a new PC with an Intel Pentium 3 processor, (obviously the Intel® Core i5 is the way forward) I similarly didn’t replicate my last TV purchase this time around. With the digital switch-off just round the corner and Moore’s Law seemingly affecting TV design as well as chip processing these days, it was an almost impossible job NOT to buy a new televisual monitor that didn’t have advanced levels of connectivity.

So, I am now the proud owner of a Smart TV – and once I’ve worked out how to use it, I will feel even smarter. My two predictions are that I will be unlikely ever to use a huge proportion of it’s capabilities and the next time I buy a TV it will have touch screen capabilities.

So onto the Connected TV conference. Reading the invitation to this event took me back to the tail end of the 1990’s and the not-lamented Open TV. For you younger readers out there, Open TV was an early connected TV experience linked to the Sky platform.

I had one client who was hoodwinked into paying £1 million development and £1 million P.A. hosting fee for a service, which never took off and was never more than an irritant to all those that tried it.

Fast forward to Nigel Walley’s iBurbia suite and the up-coming conference and we’ll find many devices/software platforms and prospective media owners that will have the same effect.

One of the problems with Open TV for my client was that he was a banker and back in the late 90’s most Sky boxes found themselves in the living room – therefore the chance of being able to do your home-banking without the rest of the family demanding to watch Pop Idol were slim.

Fast forward to 2011 and the same effect is likely for the de facto internal Facebook (FB is still taking 50% of all users’ internet time). The chance of any Facebook user (present company included) wanting to expose the contents of their ‘newsfeed’ to the whole living room simultaneously is slim to none.

That said there will be many apps – Lovefilm being my personal favourite – that will benefit both in distribution and e-commerce income by being involved at this tipping point in technology.

This time around the faster connection times as well as the crucial aspect of dual (or tri) screen interactivity should ensure that the connected economy is connected to more than just hot air and sales puff.

So the final part of the Smart TV retarded debate – TOWIE or The Only Way Is Essex for those not in the know. There is no excuse – analog, digital, smart, connected, b/w, colour, HD, 3D – no TV screen should ever be submitted to this.

Idiots watching idiots on the idiot box.