THIRD ANNUAL SCREENS ISSUE - MediaPost

delivered via an app like TV Dinner, which is produced and distributed
by the guest editors of this issue. (See page 70 for more.)
Social television means that marketers and content producers
will be subject to new rules of influence and interaction:
Recommendations and ratings will take on new life and new
power, but this also means that the strategies that work will be
amplified that much more effectively. New rules of the road will
be drawn more from the playbook of the Web and social media
than from traditional media’s broadcast model.
The mere mode of our interactions with the most common of
screens is due to change as well. On display at a number of booths
at CES were televisions that are controlled either by voice or by
hand and arm gestures that are monitored by a built-in camera —
not that this will solve the problem of an intuitive remote control
system. Some of Samsung’s “smart TVs” know who you are as well:
The camera is also used for facial recognition, switching the set’s
preferences and presets depending on who’s watching at the time.
Samsung and others are also pushing the TV set as not only
BIGGER WILL ALWAYS BE BETTER
Though we’re seeing the
proliferation of smaller and smaller
screens — and will soon be seeing
screens that have no physical
presence at all — we will continue
to see the development of display
technology that can present bigger
and bigger images as well. The
largest screen in the world is
currently the 16,000-square-foot
Panasonic screen at the Charlotte
Motor Speedway — but at 200 feet
by 80 feet, that leaves plenty of
room for expansion. As projection
and display technologies improve,
expect to see screens that cover
the sides of buildings — or areas
much larger than that. Why waste
a transcontinental flight staring
at the scenery, after all, when
you could be seeing mile-wide
advertisements on the ground
below?
WE WILL ALWAYS ARGUE ABOUT
WHAT TO WATCH
No technology in the world will
change the dynamics of social
behavior that arise when two or
more people sit down together
to pick a program. Even shows
that capture the broadest of audiences
can’t entertain everyone
all of the time. And as audiences
become more and more
fragmented (see No. 5, below),
producers and broadcasters will
have to spend more and more
of their resources competing to
capture eyeballs in the first place.
the center of home entertainment, but the heart of the home’s
command center as well. LG Electronics is already selling sets that
come with Web communications service Skype pre-installed, and
a number of sets can now display uploaded photos and videos.
For those who just want to reach the eyeballs that will still
be glued to the screens of the future, the road ahead is anything
but simple. What’s happening is that the picture is losing focus:
The TV set is no longer the center of a viewer’s undivided attention,
and even computer and mobile phone screens will be
challenged in the years ahead. It’s difficult to make viewers ooh
and ahh the way Koster and Bial’s patrons did over that 1896
umbrella dance — although technologies like screenless retinal
displays could definitely result in raised eyebrows. But although
the road ahead may be more fragmented than before, it will
also be filled with opportunity. Web-based content has thrived
by embracing the niche and the vertical. Now, the increasingly
rapid evolution of screen technology may start pushing more
traditional media producers to do the same.
From that perspective, arguing
over entertainment alternatives
is a good thing: It represents an
opportunity to convince someone
who hasn’t yet made their choice.
And social TV (see article, page
46) will complicate the scene yet
further, extending the debate to
encompass people who aren’t in
the room.
THERE WILL NEVER BE
ANYTHING ON
A corollary to No. 4 is the
current paradox of cable
television, which mirrors a
phenomenon known as the
Paradox of Choice: Past a
certain point, presenting
someone with more and
more alternatives makes all
of them seem less and less
attractive. As programming
becomes more and more
specialized, fragmenting
itself into verticals that
address exceedingly specific
niches, it will become easier
to find just the kind of thing
you had in mind — but if
you just want something
entertaining, it will be nearly
impossible without first
narrowing your choices.
When there are 237 channels
showing different flavors
of action movies, choosing
between them becomes
nearly impossible. Again,
social TV will help with this,
but without new strategies
expect things to get worse
before they get better. M.W
Spring 2012 MEDIA MAGAZINE 57