Jeroen Cappendijk, head of APRICO Solutions discusses why more isn’t always better:
Switch
on your television today and even if you only have access to digital
terrestrial television, you’re likely to be presented with 50 or more
channel choices. If your budget stretches to cable or satellite, that
number might grow to 500. Access the video on demand service and there
could be 500 movies waiting for your attention. Of course, now you can
also find literally millions of hours of video content online from
catch-up services like the BBC’s iPlayer, search portals like YouTube
and aggregators like Joost.
It’s easy to celebrate the choice
but the reality is that television viewing today has become a
bewildering and frustrating experience for many consumers. Whilst most
know that the content they are individually interested in is available,
actually finding it and accessing it on their chosen device (TV, PC or
mobile) can be difficult and time consuming. Watching television is
supposed to be enjoyable and every minute spent ‘channel zapping’,
swapping platforms, web searching and downloading, directly compromises
that enjoyment.
Initiatives like the UK’s Project Canvas, led by
the BBC, BT, ITV, Channel 4 and FIVE, which aims to bring together
broadcast and Internet video services on one platform, are designed to
address the issue but do they go far enough? Project Canvas may seem
like the ideal solution – a platform that gives consumers a means to
access the universe of available content on a single platform, but it
addresses only part of the problem. Even if we assume Canvas will be a
completely open platform, available to all content providers, it still
doesn’t address the real issue of being able to easily find the
specific content that interests you. With some consumers already
spending 25% of their time channel hopping to find what they want on
the existing platforms, it’s fair to assume the percentage won’t
decrease with more choice.
All that time spent channel surfing
means less time watching, less time purchasing premium material and
less time being exposed to the advertising messages that underwrite
commercial content production. What we need in order to address the
challenges isn’t simply an aggregation of content onto a single
platform – it requires an intelligent approach that presents tailored
content options to individual viewers based on any combination of their
demographic profile, established viewing behavior or explicit choices.
With that tailored content presented it’s possible to remove all the
hard work from today’s television, reinstate the ‘lean back’ experience
and provide a platform for highly targeted commercial content.
Adding
that layer of intelligence relies on the adoption of automatic content
recommendation and targeting technologies that take on all the manual
tasks – search, selection, recommendation, download, organisation and
presentation – and deliver a truly personal television experience. With
those technologies in place, the viewer simply turns on the television
(or PC or mobile) and all relevant mainstream and niche programming is
presented in one place for their immediate enjoyment. The consequence
is a dramatically enhanced experience and one that, as the research has
shown, significantly increases viewer engagement.
About the author
Born in 1962 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Jeroen Cappendijk studied Computer Science at the University of Delft, the Netherlands. Jeroen is a computer and Internet veteran who was business manager/developer behind multiple successful products. His experience - over 20 years - features a blend of business development, marketing and leadership in the software and consumer electronics industry.
Prior to APRICO, Jeroen was business manager in Philips Consumer Electronics, Philips IP&S Licensing, Ericsson (cordless phones), Unilever (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), SQL Systems (software), Pink Elephant (computer services).
Jeroen is General Manager of APRICO. His long history and track record of developing, launching and managing innovative, high tech products made him the natural choice to head up this new licensing venture. Jeroen holds a Master Degree from the University of Delft in Computer Science.
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