Julian Clover suggests that those consumers without a pay-TV operator to look after them will be left to their own devices.
Anyone who has ever asked will know that putting up a set of shelves is not within my skillset. I’m not that good at tying my shoelaces either, but I can wire up a TV set to receive assorted services and sort out a Wi-fi system to deliver broadband around the house.
For those people who are better at shelves there may be other issues. When the router goes wrong there is no guarantee that you will know that is the problem. Consequently people may spend hours jamming the switchboard of their local TV station – I’m not entirely sure that switchboards can be jammed these days – when really the problem might be something bought off the shelf on the High Street.
The router issue is a problem; at the Westminster eForum this week Samsung’s Dan Saunders described the router as the hardest part of getting a connected TV up and running. Saunders added that retailers were beginning to take customer support more seriously than they once did, giving Dixons’ Knowhow team as an example.
But what we’re talking about here is the world of the household that doesn’t have a pay-TV service. We actually need to broaden that out to triple-play, where the platforms are taking control of everything that goes in the home and the means to manage it.
A satellite operator with a VOD service that is pulled through the internet has a vested interest in ensuring that the broadband service is correctly connected and functioning the way it should. Increasing the satcaster will also be providing the broadband.
Virgin Media has a neat way of dealing with the broadband delivered elements of the TiVo service, dedicating a portion of bandwidth directly into the box. But if you sign up for one of the top-tier broadband services the chances are most operators will send round a man to ensure it is correctly installed. This is not only good customer relations, but in the long-term good business sense.
And here comes the problem for connected TV. You may go and buy a Samsung – or any other brand for that matter – but for a service like Knowhow you have to pay for somebody to do the work. A pay-TV operator will probably make the calculation that they are in the long-term better off giving such service for nothing, and it may be ongoing, safe in the knowledge that they will get it all back again in monthly subscriber fees.
As NDS CEO Dr Abe Peled observed: “We have to remember we have to offer it to them on a way that is seamless and transparent and is easy to operate other than making them become a system administrator.”
