The IPTV Consumer Charter
14/10/08 BY Jonathan Callcut
The talk of the town at IBC last month was ‘monetization’ and ‘consumer experience’ .....And rightly so.
As obvious at these themes are, it’s the first time I’ve seen them widely endorsed. I put it down to good old capitalism finally rearing its head in digital commerce. Competition is driving the need to differentiate and the need for some return on investment is finally bringing the consumer into focus.
The things that will make IPTV fly don’t exist up in the cloud, they’re the tangible assets that bring the consumer experience to life: innovative interfaces, targeted products, choice, ease of use, reliability and decent’ consumer friendly devices.
To use a very relevant analogy, we need to think more like retailers than engineers so that we can put the right things in people hands, using the right packaging and the right incentives.
In other words, what we need to be doing today is creating backoffice systems that are built to support the creation of compelling user experiences.
The only we can make this transition is to start seeing the IPTV world through the eyes of our consumers. Like Tesco, we need analytics tools to learn about purchasing and usage behaviour, and we need to feed this back into our service development plans. At the same time we need to allow consumers to tell us what to produce – the recent lessons of the web has taught us how valuable (and simple) this can be.
In short, we need to rewire our thinking.
So here’s our Consumer Charter for IPTV. These are the things we know our customers have come to expect of an IPTV service. And – if we’re going to succeed – we need to start building them into our thinking and the guts of our systems right away….
The IPTV Consumer Charter
Give Me Something Different
If I wanted the same TV experience I’ve had all my life, I’d have stuck with cable. This is the internet era. I expect more. I want what I’m in the mood for. I want to participate – with you and my friends. I want web apps, movies on demand and BBC1, all in one place. And I want access all the time, whatever device I’m using.
Know Me
I expect you to learn, adapt and anticipate. That’s what all my favourite providers do. And you need to get this bit right. Bad ‘personalised offers’ are a real turn off. That’s just junk mail. But, I’m happy to be a part of your learning process. Just invite me in and and I’ll forgive screw ups – if it means my service gets better…
Enable Me and Mother Me
I want the tools to be able to compile my own stuff, but when I’m not in the mood, I also want you to compile great stuff for me. Give me the best of both worlds – like having a great record collection and a great DJ that I can call on when needed.
Give Me the Ads – It’s OK!
I don’t mind the ads. In fact, I quite like them, especially when they’re helpful, intuitive and discrete. Oh, and I understand that a little advertising is the price I pay for great programming. You let that one out the bag a while back.
Make it Easy
I want something that’s easy. I also want something that doesn’t mess up my living room. Nice boxes please. And no more wires!
Make it Work
I don’t expect it to fall over in the middle of a movie. I hate it when that happens on the web.
Make it Even More Valuable
I’m all ears if you can bundle other stuff in with my TV. Like an unlimited bandwidth connection. Especially if it saves me money. But the services had better be good.
Make it Accessible
Your catalogue had better be good. I am your ‘long tail’ and you don’t really know me just yet. So, let me find my own way around and get me to the stuff I like and I’ll like you a lot.
LOVE ME!
Above all, I want you to love me. I have enough service providers in my life. Give me nice support messages. Give me bonuses. Give me more incentives. Show me you care!
