Ever look at a TV picture and wonder why you can’t click on what’s being shown and get more information or use the TV remote to immediately order something in a commercial? Ever wondered why prior episodes of TV shows are not just a few remote control clicks away on the TV set?
Miniweb’s TV Key service has been developed to offer those and other Web-like functions at affordable deployment costs.
Users see something they’re interested in on TV, click a button on the remote, get a screen with text or video and then select from a list of actions like buy, see, search or send more information.
It enables CE device manufacturers, pay-TV operators, IPTV networks, broadcasters and advertisers to offer affordable interactive TV and with existing remote controls. No mouse, no keyboard are needed.
Having signed up last spring the satellite TV service SkyTV with its 8.8 million subscribers, Miniweb is looking for more pay TV companies to use TV Key’s Internet-like interactive service.
The technology allows the monetization of viewers’ “see, search, spend” actions while they’re watching TV, using the speed of broadband. A TV Key is an alias for a TV site in the same way that a Web site address is the alias for a Web site URL.
A TV Key is a numeric code that acts like a URL. Products and channels are assigned TV Keys. The TV remote is used to enter the TV Key, which can be either brand-specific or generic.
For example, to get information about Sony products, the user might enter 7669 (SONY) on the remote. To find out where to buy house keys, the user might enter 289 5397 (BUY KEYS) on the remote.
Miniweb says TV Keys are easier to remember than toll-free numbers, SMS short codes or URLs, and can be immediately entered on the TV, increasing response rates.
A TV site is an XML-based interactive destination that’s created from existing Web site assets and infrastructures but repurposed specifically for viewing on a TV. The XML format Miniweb uses is an ETSI standard.
Miniweb’s service allows Web sites to become TV sites. Pay-TV operators and advertisers can then easily add Web-like interactivity.
The company says a TV site is suitable for any business that wants to deploy interactive TV services at Web site costs. As interactive destinations, TV sites are cheaper to build, refresh and maintain compared to other interactive service options.
Existing Web content can be enhanced for viewing on the big screen.
Miniweb provides all the resources required for building TV sites such as templates, documentation and support, but most Web site developers familiar with XML can also create them. Once a vendor has selected a TV Key, it can put it in ads and on product packaging.
An advantage for vendors is that by connecting the user to the TV site they are not sending him to a PC where he might search for competitive products and pricing. For the broadcaster, it means the viewer keeps watching TV, not switching his focus to the Web.
In an age where viewers increasingly use their DVR to skip through ads, a major TV Key benefit is that the interactive service is available to the user who is watching recorded content just as if it were a live association or trigger.
TV Keys connect users either to TV sites or to a media stream. UK network operators have realized the value of this association, which has become known as “Red Button.” TV Keys provides a similar function but without the technical hassle. Typically the program being broadcast continues as the interactivity about a product is displayed from the Web server. The same TV Key can work on all cable, telco, satellite and over-the-air broadcasts, a feature that’s important for advertisers.
Brand and content owners can buy TV Keys on a 12-month license. The price will vary by country. Prices in the UK start at $175. TV Keys can be bought as a brand or generic key and for a particular geographic area or for a whole country. A local wine retailer, for example, could target his immediate area and a national brand could target the entire country.
Miniweb said its software and service can be used as part of a tru2way operator’s service or run as a broadcaster-specific application on a pay-TV operators’ tru2way network.
Most US cable TV operators appear committed to deploying tru2way over the next several years. A number of makers of consumer gear such as Sony and Panasonic have committed to making tru2way-compatible products such as TV sets and DVRs.
Miniweb can also run on other platforms such as OpenTV and Microsoft’s Mediaroom, which AT&T and BT are using.
Miniweb offers the tools and templates to design, build and publish interactive TV sites, which extends the foundational principle of interoperability offered by tru2way to other types of devices and networks.
“Broadcasters can now deliver targeted and relevant interactivity to make their channels more engaging by enhancing their programming with broadband-delivered, Internet-derived content,” said Ian Valentine, chief architect and founder of Miniweb.
SkyTV launched TV Key in April on its digital service. It’s available to over 8.8 million Sky subscribers and on all TV channels.
Valentine says the proposition is cost effective for delivering interactive services. It’s as affordable as the Web, he said, for broadcasters, advertisers and network owners.
He points out that linking TV viewers to interactive services has previously required the TV networks to make sizeable network-specific technical investments that were difficult to justify. However, because TV Keys are a service that Miniweb provides, there are no development costs.
Miniweb is changing the interactive TV landscape, Valentine says, by creating an easy-to-use, affordable and memorable trigger for audience interaction on the TV. TV Keys enhance the viewing experience for consumers and bring Web-style business models for broadcasters and advertisers alike.
Miniweb’s proposition is to offer a transactional, Web-style, targeted advertising model to emerge, finally allowing broadcasters to fight back as advertising spend is increasingly diverted to the Web.
Looking ahead, Valentine predicts that TV Keys will become associated with the TV sites of video aggregators and also directly with broadband media streams. When used this way, they effectively become numeric shortcuts to video services delivered directly from the Internet.
Viewers would use TV Keys as easy-to-remember channel “numbers” on broadband-enabled TV devices such as the TV sets that come with a broadband connection. Perhaps you can guess what the broadband TV channel number would be for YouTube.