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Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Making TV Cool Again

CANNES, France – “They’re going to end up losing all their money.’’

That was the assessment of one 14-year-old girl, caught on camera, when asked about what is going to end up happening to “TV companies.” Sure, she’s barely into high school. But she – and her coterie of friends who appeared with her and seconded her assessment – are the future of media.

Television, you see, is now sitting in the backseat, when it comes to getting the attention and keeping it of a whole generation of viewers. Just like newspapers could see the warning signs of failing interest amongst their readers a quarter-century ago, so can TV programmers now.

These youth were being asked to choose what the most important devices in their lives were. The choices, on big flash cards, were the iPod, the TV, the Xbox, Tivo, personal computer and cell phone.

Hands down winner: cell phone. Tossup for second place: Computer and iPod. Tivo – and the TV – was something the parents seem to need.

A five-person focus group, at any age, is not statistically reliable. But this presentation came guised as a warning shot from Dick Anderson, the general manager of IBM’s Global Media and Entertainment Industry Division, delivered at the outset of the second day of the C-Cor Global IP Summit here.

But this is not an isolated shot. Last September, Forrester Research found the same exact phenomenon. Television is the most important device of the Baby Boomer: Consumers over the age of 40. If you’re planning for the future, the cell phone was the most important device for consumers between the ages of 18 and 26. Second: the personal computer.

Now, as Anderson pointed out, the “TV companies” – particularly those that operate networks that take in monthly subscriptions from viewers (aka cable system operators) – concern over this change is typically deflected by discussions of “quality of service” and the benefits of high-definition television. In effect, pristine, reliable delivery of top-grade content delivered on huge, immersive screens will fend off the competition coming in online and over the phone.

The content on computer and cell phone is low-quality; and the quality of the pictures are low-grade. The new platforms are simply not competitive with conventional multichannel video services, goes the argument.

But that misses the point, noted an executive for one European maker of cable operations support software. The computer and the cell phone rank higher because they are not joint property of the family, for practical purposes. They are personal. They are portals into youngsters’ own private worlds. No one has to see what videos you’re watching, how many IMs you’re sending (or to whom or what you’re saying), or whether you’re getting your homework done or not.

Beyond being more personal and private, the devices serve more purposes. To the youngsters on the IBM video, the computer is a more enjoyable device because it does more. You can have access to the entire Internet. In their eyes, that means TV, too. They don’t make distinctions about streaming or downloading. They just know they can watch TV on their computer. The TV, by contrast, is a single-purpose, standalone and standapart machine. What’s the fun in that?

This generation is used to computers crashing, so quality of service is a relative term. And HD? Does it really make that much of a difference on computer or cell phone screens? Most probably, not.

All of which is to say, as Anderson reminds, that you can’t get too set in your assumptions. The world can change for reasons you don’t expect. Making pictures bigger and sharper won’t necessarily make TV cool again, for kids – or the adults that emerge from them.

Our grandparents were enthralled by the print publication. Our parents were the radio generation. We’re the TV generation. This is the Internet edition.

So how to make TV cool again?

A Silicon Valley startup, TellyTopia, holds one piece of the promise, potentially. It’s working on a system for automating the conversion of popular, interesting and “safe” videos made by viewers and posted on the Net, into videos that can be recalled on demand by cable customers. They could even be fodder for a 24-hour user-generated channel. The company, which promises “utopia for television,” was recently bought by Trilithic, an Indianpolis, Indiana, supplier of network testing equipment, according to one of its executives here.

TV system operators though could borrow any number of other cues from how content gets delivered on the Internet, to get back in the game with kids and make them future customers. Recommendation engines, playlists of interesting programs as compiled by other subscribers, “editor’s picks,’’ even a service that does for TV content what ReelzChannel does for movies. Curate the Web. Curate TV. Curate the overall experience. Maybe even deliver on some of the promises of interactive television made in the early ‘80s, when cable franchises were won on the idea that viewers would actually take control of what they could personally choose to see on TV.

Mosaics of multiple channels of video are a start. But the real challenge is going to be making TV personal.

It used to be that one screen served multiple people at one time. That communal experience was perfect for broadcasting.

In the Internet generation, the experience will be one person paying attention to multiple screens. And doing much more than just watching TV at the same time, to boot.

Making TV cool again will mean making TV about more than just kicking back for the finest picture money can buy.