Vizimo personalizes the EPG

“All those different forms of recommendations need to be catered for you,” Stewart said. “They are all things the user looks for and seeks inspiration from. Watching how people watch TV and come to choices about media is to enable all the different types of recommendation people use and give people value and extend their horizons into new stuff. How far do you want to push people? Just outside of what they would have otherwise have found, but not too far. If you push people miles out of their region, it just looks random.”

The data points the company can garner through its recommendation APIs also lend themselves well to advertisers. By knowing the geographic demographics of their viewers, as well as data points on their interests, they can serve up ads, promotions and content that is relevant to these traits. Vizimo offers the initial APIs free to operators, but charges for the premium models that include profiling and VOD functionality.

Search and discovery, along with improving the overall TV viewing experience, is a focal point of most middleware and app providers too. For Microsoft’s Mediaroom Presentation Framework, which powers interactivity for AT&T, improving on the search and discovery experience is part of the product’s core, said Shari Barnett, marketing director for applications for Microsoft’s TV, video and music business group. She said Mediaroom is currently redesigning pieces of its system specifically around search and discovery and promotion of video wares on the TV with the goal of making it fun to find what to watch.

“We’re looking for easier ways to store stuff that you like, so that you can have a place where just your favorite stuff could be stored,” Barnett said. “So when you turn on your TV, you just want to see your content in your DVR, your VOD choices, your stocks or your horoscope. You can identify yourself, and the interface can be much more personalized. We are working on making that a part of our core interface as well.”

Next: IPTV v. Cable – which has the leg up in interactivity?