IPTV@IBC2010 cover story


Often seen as synonymous with the ‘user interface’, the ‘user experience’ on a pay-TV platform is a complex entity that relies on a number of elements - culminating in the interface that viewers use to navigate around the available content and services. Elad Manishviz, VP of product marketing at NDS, outlines the importance of the functionality and services that underpin the next generation user experience.


The interactive nature of online features means that they are not compatible with the ‘lean back’ viewing experience of traditional broadcast TV - they tend to require active participation from the viewer and therefore detract from the content. There are a number of ways to address this by tailoring these features to the television - at NDS we understand that good quality television programming is the killer app so we always ensure that content is at the core of our solutions. One such way to achieve this is to make additional functionality highly contextual to the content, so ensuring that features such as widgets and applications add value through their relevance to the content and/or channel.


Making TV an unforgettable experience I


t is a widely held understanding that enriching features and services increase ARPU and reduce churn, but what are the services that subscribers actually want? A recent survey of US cable subscribers, conducted by NDS, found that viewers wanted to be able


Above, the NDS Oona TV guide.


to perform more Internet-like functions through their television sets such as social networking, peer recommendations or the ability to view local cinema listings on the TV. Introducing online functionality is not, however, as straightforward as some in the pay-TV industry might suggest.


S14 l ibe l OFFICIAL GUIDE TO IPTV@IBC2010 september/october 2010 l www.ibeweb.com


The NDS Oona user experience framework is one approach that does just that. The principle behind the concept is to only show those applications and value added services that relate to the content being viewed at any given time, based on the metadata in the programme stream. For example, a viewer might want to find out more about Johnny Depp while watching Pirates of the Caribbean, discover other programmes that are similar to Glee, or share their admiration for a contestant on X Factor with their followers on Twitter. There are some connected TV services that offer a selection of these applications and services, but these generally require the viewer to plough through a screen full of menus or apps to find a particular service even if they know what they are looking for. With the number of content sources that are converging on the television on the increase, supplemented by the growing popularity of over-the-top (OTT) (and the services that it makes available such as VOD, catch-up and online video), there are a number of elements to take into account beyond applications and widgets.


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