Started the day touring the TIvo Meeting Room and a quick meeting with Tom Rogers, CEO of Tivo. In the past few years Tivo has not purchased booth space, but rather has taken over a series of meeting rooms in the North Hall of the Convention Center. Tom and i discussed the successes we've had with advertising on Tivo, but also the challenges they have faced and, at least for the forseeable future continue to face with subscriber growth.
There are some exciting enhancements to the ad offerings that Tivo is offering that have either just been launched or will be in the new few months. One of the most exciting to me was the introduction of Pause Advertising. When a consumer pauses on a program, an overlay comes up with the first link always a link to Tivo's search functionality for more info and related programming. The second link is the ad link to an Advertiser's Showcase. I'm pressing Tivo to ad logo/graphical elements to the ad, but the strength in this model is that the ad can be targeted by program. If your client has product integration in a show, is a sports sponsor, or the product is directly relevant to the context of the show, this is a great opportunity.
We were also able to preview the new Search interface available to HD subscribers. It integrates all elements of Tivo's ability to Search both TV content and Web content (all HD boxes are web-enabled). For example, let's say you're searching for Lost, it will not only bring up the content on TV for Lost, but the content on YouTube and ABC.com. This new iteration of Tivo Search is graphically pleasing moving away from the text only look and feel of the current Search functionality.
From Tivo I was finally able to start walking the Convention floor. The main enhancements to TVs this year seems to be the continued thinning of sets, the ability to view 3-D programming (with the new 3-D glasses, not old red-blue), the faster refresh rates to eliminate blurring effects (current sets at 120hz will get as high as 360hz), and the Yahoo Widget Channels (see more on this below).
While all the tv sets looked terrific, I am still incredibly impressed by the Pioneer Kuros. They still have the deepest blacks of any set and are just beautiful. Panasonic was showing the largest plasma screen at 150", up from 120" last year. Panasonic was showing off its Viera Cast service that incorporates web content onto Viera sets. Also, Panasonic demoed their Z1 series of plasmas that are 1" thin. This is the thinnest plasma yet, but there's a trick here..they have taken the TV tuner out of the monitor and included as a separate piece that transmits the signal via 1080p HD wireless "Wireless HD".
Calling Dick Tracy! Calling Dick Tracy! Seventy-eight years after the creation of the hard-hitting, fast-talking police detective you can finally buy a Phone Watch just like he had. LG is introducing the line of Bluetooth enabled phones that not only allow you to talk from your wrist or the BT head-set, but allows you to read (not write) text messages that arrive.
Do you remember the part in the Matrix where they sit in those really cool chairs and "hook in' to enter the world. Well that's what i was reminded of when i saw Novelquest's new workstation that incorporates a reclining chair with a 3-screen display on an electronic anchor. Could this level of comfort one day replace cubicles? Not at the current $40,000 price tag, but damn..i want one of these..
One other interesting thing of note that we saw was a new vending machine that was a joint development between Sapien, Samsung, and Coca Cola (GAIL READ THIS!!!). Taking a vertical 50"touchscreen flat panel from Samsung, this vending machine runs full screen animation and video ads promoting Coca Cola products and promotions.
After walking through the South Hall i had an interesting meeting with Yahoo. They will be launching their Yahoo Widget channels on Samsung TVs in the new few weeks, followed by LG and Vizio. This Widget Channel is being built in open platform and will allow consumers to add and delete most widgets for viewing on tv and other devices. While it will be years before this type of built-in set technology will penetrate most homes, it is the clearest indicator yet that TVs as dumb terminals are on their way out. Also, Yahoo is working with Intel on the new integrated CE3100 chip, but these first Yahoo Widget Channels will be built into the silicon currently in the TVs. When Intel chips start to role out the Yahoo Widget Channel will role out with them. I have heard from several industry execs that this is one of the most important announcements in media technology in years and truly will impact content producers and marketers in the long term.
