SE P T E M B E R/ OC T O B E R 2 0 1 2 NBC TV vs. Online In the U.S. during the Olympics, NBC broke all records with 159.3 million video streams (of which 64.4 million were live streams) on 9.9 million devices on its three pay-TV sites: NBCOlympics.com, Live Extra and NBC Olympics mobile. Viewers had to subscribe to a cable service or some form of broadband service to access content. Surprisingly the live streaming coverage did not hurt primetime ratings. To the contrary, NBC Olympic coordinator Jim Bell was quoted as saying that, “it helped primetime.” Online averaged 8.56 million streams daily (with one million live), while NBC primetime averaged 31.1 million viewers. In terms of ad revenues it is estimated that $1 billion has been generated from TV ($800 million from primetime) and $60 million from online. Online has served NBC more ways than one, considering that the broadcast network focused on only a few sports in primetime, but muted some of the complaints with a full range of sports shown on its online and cable services. For example, NBC chose to telecast the USA-Japan women’s football final on its sports cable network, rather than NBC TV. Apple’s OTT Becomes Juicy Apple is looking to enter the TV business by offering consumers a TV set-top box (STB) that makes accessing and viewing programming simpler, and gives viewers the ability to watch any show at any time through a DVR that stores content on the Internet. But the task won’t be easy since cable companies see Apple TV as a powerful competitor. In a three-part series, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that companies like Apple view the TV sector as their next big market. “But its gatekeepers — the TV distributors [cable and TV stations] and media companies — have been reluctant to let them in.” In keeping with Apple’s user-friendly M.O., the interface is expected to mirror that of the iPad. Apple would also like users to be able to access the TV content on other devices such as iPhones and iPads and is hoping to allow viewers access to all episodes of current seasons of TV shows, whereas now, cable on-demand services usually just offer a handful of episodes on demand. The new device would also provide viewers with access to past seasons already available on iTunes, the WSJ reported. But the paper also pointed out that if Apple wants content, it may have to use some of its $117 billion to buy a studio. Naturally, Apple could buy into TV set manufacturers to embed the OTT STB in the TV receivers, making Apple itself a gatekeeper. N-Screen Brings More Confusion People who used to watch shows on TV sets in their living rooms first migrated to PCs on their desks and then to smartphones. This evolution pressed the TV industry to come up with services that optimized every screen. And this was when confusion was born. Now consumers are inundated with systems for Cloud TV, Connected TV, Internet TV, IPTV, OTT, Smart TV, Web TV and now… N-Screen TV. The result of all this confusion is that it has helped to stymie the growth of broadband TV. Even though they all basically mean the same thing, people are not talking about the same thing when they mention any one of those services. The latest entry, the N-Screen, is just like any connected TV or over-the-top (OTT) device that, through broadband, enables use of content and information across all devices with a screen. Whether this OTT is outside the TV set or inside a receiving device is just a matter of time, considering that by 2015, 80 percent of TV sets will have broadband connectivity. As for the N-Screen system, it basically allows stored content with different encoding processes to move among devices. Tech News V I D E O • A G E 12
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