7 iTV & T-Commerce Highlights: TVOT Day One

1. PayPal is All-In: PayPal announced a raft of deals, most importantly with Comcast and TiVo. During his fireside keynote with Tracy Swedlow, TVOT founder, Scott Dunlap, PayPal's VP of Emerging Opportunities / New Ventures emphasized that PayPal is all about keeping commerce purchasing simple and safe for consumers. They accomplish this by taking "as many steps out of the process" as possible. 

2. Let's Get Shopping on TV: According to PayPal research, users' openness to buy product from TV has surged from just 15% a few years ago to 49% in their latest stats. Per Dunlap, "T-commerce can be as big as e-commerce is today" and comprises the third leg of their strategy stool along with PC/mobile and retail (note their recent retail partner announcement). PayPal is searching for partners to iterate and test. 

3. T-Commerce & the Single Screen: Mike Fitzsimmons, CEO of Delivery Agent and Mark Wenger from PayPal talked with Arthur Orduna, who announced yesterday his arrival at PayPal in a business development role. Fitzsimmons underscored the success of recent t-commerce campaigns, particularly History Channel's single screen shopping widget where vs. the second experience, engagement rates were 20x higher and time spent [read more...]    

Demo of Softel MediaSphere Interactive TV Application at TVOT

1. What Viewers Want Per ZeeBox: In his conversation with Tracy Swedlow, Anthony Rose, UK based ZeeBox co-founder and CTO, let us know that ZeeBox - a second-screen companion app - should be headed stateside in the next six months or so. (ZeeBox has about 1 million downloads in UK which "should translate into" about 6 million in U.S.) Rose said viewers want three things while watching TV: (i) more information about programming; (ii) links to related content (e.g., additional episodes); and (iii) ways to buy things on TV. Chalk up another champion for t-commerce! 

2. What ZeeBox Delivers: So what does this mean for ZeeBox strategy? Per Rose, ZeeBox delivers on four fronts: (i) Finding things to watch, though he noted that if their app only accomplished this, engagement times would be very short; (ii) engagements via programming info, social and transactions; (iii) control over the TV and STB (i.e., a better remote); and (iv) revenue via digital media advertising and t-commerce. Check back this fall for my first-hand evaluation of ZeeBox as I'm curious to see if and how it truly differentiates itself from all the other second screen apps.

3. Roku and The Winning Formula: Tracy Swedlow also sat down with Anthony Wood, Roku founder and CEO for a wide-ranging discussion on iTV and video streaming. I tweeted his comment that we may very well see our first virtual MSO this year. Wood argued that traditional bundles (MSOs), OTT Bundles and New Brands will all be around for a long time but underscored that winning platforms will exhibit three characteristics: (i) connectivity (a point in favor of separate boxes and smart TVs); (ii) upgradeable software with strong security and separate billing; and (iii) content "that attracts" content (which I took to mean gaining critical mass with your content offerings). 

4. Roku Goals: Per Wood, Roku strives "to be the dominant platform in Smart TVs and boxes." To that end, Roku is dedicating a team to interactive TV and focusing on: [read more...]  

Demo of ActiveVideo Cloud TV Platform at TVOT