SeeSaw could have been the poster child of connected TV, but it failed to make its presence felt in an evolutionary world, writes Julian Clover.
In theory SeeSaw was ready to become a new entrant to the television market. With a blue chip company like Arqiva behind it, the on demand service that had purchased the assets of the former Project Kangaroo was ready to become a star of the connected TV age.
The trouble is, other than a half-hearted attempt on Boxee, it didn’t really make it into the connected TV world that would have assured it a key place on YouView, in which Arqiva is a shareholder. Instead SeeSaw was largely confined to the PC.
The natives were getting restless, and following a failed attempt to sell on the Kangaroo technology during IBC 2010, Arqiva announced not once, but twice that it was looking for an investment partner. It’s not a good time to be a Canadian pensioner.
SeeSaw had failed the most basic of tests, that if I didn’t write this column, would I have heard of it. But who can name any of the other services that are supposedly driving forward our televisual entertainment? Blinkbox, the video-on-demand service established by former Channel 4 New Media executive Michael Cormish and Vodafone’s former head of content Adrian Letts, now has Tesco as its major shareholder, but also lacks the brand recognition of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
Is it any wonder that television manufacturers are seemingly ashamed to admit the numbers of their customers that have hooked up their new purchase to the internet?
SeeSaw was a little like the old UK Gold – the former UK TV executive who was responsible for the service’s content – and in its earliest days much was made of the editorialising of what was available. The idea to push, say, an early episode of Spooks as the new series premiered on the BBC. But despite this and like everyone else, it lacked distinctiveness. You’ll find the same companies prepared to release their content and the same programmes on the shelf. Worse, if there’s nothing on your 57 channels, the first port of call is likely to be the video on demand that sits on your TV rather than firing up the PC. SeeSaw had not managed to implement a multiplatform strategy.
So far only Lovefilm has managed to cut through the hype – it is now owned by Amazon – but it is the major network brands of the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and to a less extent the Sky Player that UK homes are already familiar with that are driving connected TV content.
