Cullmann Design Blog

CES is just under way and Sony and Samsung have already announced plug-and-play solutions to update your television. These updates expand the functionality of your otherwise passive television experience to include on-demand content pulled from the web as well as apps.

Sony’s solution comes on the form of a second generation Google TV. Both Logitech and Sony have attempted early releases of Google’s “lean-back” project previously, but with a new interface atop the Google Android underpinnings, this new product is looking like a mature offering for a wide audience.

Samsung has also announced a set-top solution with the inTouch. inTouch, also Android based,  offers non-internet enabled televisions applications to access popular web content like YouTube and a shallow pool of widget-like apps with content from Google. Adding additional functionality to the inTouch is an HD camera that provide Skype access. A device like this would be ideal for the family hoping to extend the utility of the family television as an information and tele-communications center.

Why start talking about this now? The living room is changing and these devices are at the heart of that change. People are already using their smart phones, tablets, and laptops to participate in social media and interact with others while watching popular television and sports events. The connected television will allow viewers to change from passive engagement with shows and online personalities to truly interactive content and material that is truly relevant to the viewer.

Among the popular trends in the HDTV market is the inclusion of internet connections. The ability for high-end televisions to connect to the internet is not new this year, it is becoming increasingly popular. Previously, the utility of these connections has been limited to receiving operating system and firmware updates.

The autumn of 2008 brought added functionality with partnership arrangements between content providers and television manufacturers. Sony, providing customers with on-demand access to their library of films directly from their televisions, followed by agreements between Hitachi, Pioneer, Samsung and the like making deals with Netflix and online streaming media providers.

The convergence of broadcast media and network-enabled on-demand media is evident.

During CES, Yahoo! Unveiled it’s partnership with several television manufacturers support of the Yahoo! Konfabulator Widget Framework directly from the primary television interface. This will allow users to add “widgets” to their television interface as a constant resource and source of reference for them.

Those who are familiar with widgets are aware that they span from the critically useful to the completely obtuse. The opportunity that the “TV Widget” represents is a market outside of the early-adoption, computer-centric set that has been it’s core audience to-date. Even with a relatively small market that is limited to televisions shipped this year, the TV Widget represents a new paradigm of marketing. Think “American Idol Voting Widget”, the “I Want to be a Millionaire – Audience Lifeline Widget” or the “NBA Contest That Referee Call Widget”.

The audience participation widget is what will drive the adoption of the widget and the sale of televisions featuring this capability, What marketers will be attracted to is the presence of the widget in conjunction with or supplementing programming.

Currently Yahoo! and television manufacturers are shy to reveal the marketing partnerships that will drive this relationship, but I am sure that packaged solutions for users in conjunction with media plans are what is driving this new innovation.

Outside of the more advertising-centric utility of TV Widgets, the idea just makes sense: It’s an obvious medium to add user-customized information and a-la-carte content to. Who wouldn’t love to take the Bloomfield Television ideology and customize it according to your needs, or mood or time of day? Allergy statistics, medication reminders, soccer practice schedules, PTA meetings and nightly specials from your local bistros. With the ease that widgets can be created and updated, every business, large or small will be able to participate with a “custom channel” for users to download and install.

Many of the specifics of the plan are yet to be determined, but it’s likely, that before years’ end, you will be able to vote for America’s Top Model from a small little application running right in your television screen.