Hollywood2020.blogs.com on location in Las Vegas, Nevada at the National Assn of Broadcasters show www.nabshow.com by Joyce Schwarz, JCOM, www.joycecom.com, author, analyst and emerging entertainment consultant.
I have seen the future of television and it's hidden in the middle of the floor in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Run don't walk to Sky Perfect Communications, Inc. Booth SL 2961 (SKY PerfecTV! English Site --http://www.skyperfectv.co.jp/en/ ) and you will see a demo of the next-generation of television program guide or EPG (electronic program guide) now in final development phase and set to be launched by the end of 2006 by Sky PerfectTV! Services.
Television Guide Learns Your Profile & Recommends Programming & ads:
What makes this new tech called "Digital Oconomy Guide" so special is that it features an intelligent (it learns about your preferences) recommendation system that provides users with TV programming along with adjacent profile-specific, text-based advertising and ecommerce offers. According to the one-page position paper' handed out at the booth by SKY PerfecTV developers and spokespersons from Japan, the guide also offers users a custom-play list to support users in planning their personal TV consumption.
METADATA DRIVEN TV GUIDE
click on thumbnail to see info from new SkyPerfect Oconomy EPG (tv guide).
The SKY PerfecTV Communication's handout also explains that 'the system can aggregate TV program metadata in standardized interface, metadata exchange platform between TV program providers and digital terrestial or internet broadcast operators'. The one-pager says that SKY PerfecTV! developed with Sony the recommendation engine. It explains that the engine provides the user with programming by matching preference metadata with TV program attributes accumulated in the metadata database of the system.
SO WHAT IS SKY PERFECT ?
The info provided says that SKY Perfect Communications Inc. (SKY Perfect) is the largest digital multichannel broadcasting platform in Japan --providing 300 channels via three communications satellites and optical fiber networks. Total subscribers: exceed 4.1 million. The shareholders in SKY Perfect include Sony, Fuji TV and Itochu with each owning about 12.5 percent of the company. In other words, it's a satellite system .
Search and finding content is one of the keys to monetizing the future of television programing and all programming IP, wireless etc in the future. As the head of NAB said this week, "Content is king, but distribution is key". And I'll add marketing and helping viewers find that content is crucial. Since I co-wrote the NAB Book "Multimedia 2000" back in 1993, I've been talking about CUSTOMTAINMENT -- customizing my entertainment, infotainment and edutainment on demand anyplace, anytime and everywhere.
So far, the anytime, anyplace and everywhere is possible but customizing my content is still all but impossible. Sure there is TIVO but it doesn't customize my web content nor my wireless content. Plus I need a box and I need to pay subscriber fees.
SO MANY PROMISES -- SO MUCH VAPORWARE
During the past decade there have been lots of companies and trials and tech that promised us that they would provide personal profiling and user-content management systems -- a few that I remember include Pointcast (on the web) and long gone, Junglee (sold to Amazon.com and is as I understand the basis for their collaborative filtering engine -- meaning if you like this book, you'll like that book kind of thing which certainly doesn't work when I buy a golf book for my dad and next time I go to Amazon.com I get a recommendation for a cross-between golf and technology books and they seem to start assuming I'm male, not female for some reason. Yodlee (still around)but concentrating on the financial aspects for consumer identification and authentication www.yodlee.com. Full disclosure here -- also consulted for a NY based firm called Younology (later Youpowered.com) that held much promise of a neural-net, intelligent agent and personal profiling by a character they created called Orby. Alas, Youpowered is gone.
METADATA IS HOT BUZZWORD AT NAB
The Metadata panels at NAB's G-Sam section and DAM Theatre (Digital Asset Management) have been packed --metadata is a hot buzzword here at NAB. That's why it's fascinating to see this 'Digital Oconomy Guide" which their handout says is based on TV-Anytime forum specs already adopted in major broadcasting standardization bodies like ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), DVBI (Digital Video Broadcasting), ARIBA (Assn. of Radio Industries and Businesses).
A quick check on Google news found no NAB press coverage of this booth. Believe me the booth itself is fabulous and the video presentation is engaging -- booth is created by Lynch Exhibits, www.lynchexhibits.com. The animated video presentation is capably presented by a gorgeous demo dude, Andy Saks, 
who customizes the pitch to the audience-- so appropriate for this kind of presentation and product.
Quick inquiries to the SkyPerfecTV developer on-hand at NAB provided me just a bit more info that the Sony division that created this (or co-created according to the booth handout) is based in Tokyo. The press release on the SkyPerfecTV! English-language website is a PDF dated March, 2006 and it will not download for some reason.
TV FOR MY EVERY MOOD
The demo I saw at NAB shows how the user preferences are quickly input by multiple choice click of a standard TV remote (no special buttons needed). One aspect of the demo even promises to provide programming for my mood -- tired, lonely, sad, happy etc. Plus, the playlist appears to be able to aggregate content based on cross-between choices i.e. -- the user likes historical romances so that GONE WITH THE WIND will show up on my playlist but not SEX IN THE CITY. It was fun to see a Japanese language version of FX Cable's "NIP TUCK" show pop-up based on the animated depiction of a potential user's mood. I can see it now -- feeling angry -- want to strangle your boss? -- watch WWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) SMACKDOWN #20, homemaker home alone -- DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is just what you need.
MORE ON THIS AMAZING TECHNOLOGY LATER......and even though the Digital Oconomy Guide key letters spell out D-O-G -- this guide could be BEST OF SHOW! For more info or comments, email [email protected].
SkyperfecTV service in Japan is ok, they have lots of channels but their service for foreigners in Japan is pretty lame. They do have some crazy commercials though
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/skyperfectvs-wtf-tv-ad/
Posted by: nancy | September 21, 2007 at 07:40 AM