IPTV and ITV: Two Worlds That Need Each Other Badly, If Only They Knew

The other topic was equally interesting.  The question is simple: “If an operator can bring you a unified view of the consumer (individually and in the aggregate) across all screens and services, would you be interested?”  A few ITV advocates scratched their heads, but programmers and advertisers asked (paraphrasing): “Where do I find them?!”  It seems that the ITV world is still unaware of the emerging Telco “convergence” opportunity, or, if they had heard of it, still think it is a far-off dream.

TV programmers and advertisers are symbiotic. There is no programming without advertising.  As IPTV operators scale into the millions and as the larger ones roll out 4-screen services (TV, PC, mobile, game console) under common management (including multi-screen ad campaign management platforms), the interest level from programmers and advertisers toward IPTV and converged Telco platforms should become compelling indeed. 

IPTV, as a multi-play service platform, has an opportunity to leverage a unique offering for advertisers: a single view of the subscriber to the advertiser, across all screens.  Organizations such as the Open IPTV Forum may have a technology-oriented mission to take IPTV to the mass market, but could someone please take on a role to create awareness among advertisers and programmers, and play a role in defining the rules of engagement for multi-play, 4-screen advertising while it can, as a strategic initiative?  Even this is just a way-station toward a day when one advertiser can wage a single ad campaign across all competing operators in a given city.

Just as well, there’s no reason why these IPTV and ITV universes, with all the variety and creativity within each of them, can’t all just get along, by availing themselves to one another.  The next wave of IPTV innovation will be just as much about the convergence of old and new advertising and content models as it will be about the technical convergence of the services themselves across devices and access.

Steve Hawley focuses on the evolving world of IPTV as principal analyst and consultant for tvstrategies (Advanced Media Strategies LLC), http://www.tvstrategies.com