Henry Holtzman's session at PLanning-ness 2013

1. Henry Holtzman
Information Ecology
MIT Media Lab
Planning-ness 2013 (5/9)

2. My Goals for the afternoon
Think provocatively about TV and share those thoughts
Illustrate what tech can and is doing to redefine TV
Have a new idea for a TV related product or service
Learn something new
Have fun

3. Future of Television

4. Does Television have a
Future?

5. What is Television?

6. Television...
Set
Hardware becomes commodity item. Hard to
differentiate.
Show
Transforms to apps, and then to experiences. Still TV?
Channel
Dead. Face it.
Industry
People will always seek entertainment and diversion,
but they could do without “television.”

7. Ask the people...
It just works.
It turns on instantly.
Others will have watched the same thing I watch.
It’s episodic; structured.
It’s not demanding.

8. Things I think about...
Broadcast
seems outmoded, but there is magic in local
community
Synchronicity
There is no going back once you’ve owned a PVR, so
why do people still act like TV shows will continue to
have a time slot?

9. Two Screens
People don’t just watch TV; they do something else at
the same time, so...
we develop apps for their second device, in order to
monopolize their attention.
But didn’t they want to do something of their own
choosing?
If the content is not engaging, shouldn’t we work on
that, rather than distracting the viewer from the main
theme?

10. Abundance
More Choices
More Places
More Interactivity
More Pixels

11. What about “Smart” TV?
Magazines on tablets offer some lessons

12. Newspapers and magazines are becoming apps.
USA Today
New York Times
Popular Mechanics
Sports Illustrated

13. Sports Illustrated
Magazines as Apps

14. Popular Mechanics
Magazines as Apps

15. TV App Evolution
V1: Apps are widgets: augment shows with
information resources.
V2 (Current): In addition to widgets, apps add Internet
distribution channels.
V3 (Future): Premium content migrates out of channels
and into the app store.

16. Super Pac App

17. Dan Siegel, MIT Sloan 2012
Jennifer Hollett, Harvard Kennedy School 2012
SUPER PAC APP:
BRINGING TRANSPARENCY WITHIN EARSHOT

18. 18

20. 20

21. 21

22. OUR THREE TECHNOLOGIES
1 Audio fingerprinting
2 Web crawler
3 Content aggregation system

23. WEB CRAWLER1
Super PAC YouTube videos
Technology provided by our partner, TuneSat
Our database of ads

24. AUDIO FINGERPRINTING2
!
!
Super PAC ad
Technology provided by our partner, TuneSat
Our database of ads

25. OUR DATABASE—SOME MORE DETAILS
Current number of registered Super PACs: 534
…that have raised >$1M: 23
# of ads aired in general presidential campaign 2008: 782,782
# paid for by outside interest groups: 62,623 (8%)
Est. # of political ads produced in 2008: 15k-40k
Est. for 2012: 18k-46k
Est. # of ads to be produced by Super PACs in 2012: 9k-23k
Sources: “About $2.6 Billion Spent on Political Ads in 2008,” The New York Times, December 2008; “University of Wisconsin Advertising Project:
Political Advertising in 2008,” March 2010; “Analyst Sees 2012 Political Ad Spending Handily Exceeding 2008 Levels,” Hollywood Reporter, October
2011; OpenSecrets.org database, accessed May 2012; internal analysis

26. CONTENT AGGREGATION SYSTEM3
• Super PAC data available from
the Federal Election Commission,
updated daily
• Plug into third party APIs
• On-going discussions with
PolitiFact to access/license their
proprietary data

27. BUSINESS PLAN OUTLINE—CONSIDERATIONS
Option Considerations Conclusion
Advertising Risks neutrality; hard to
manage “church and state”
separation
Charge for app purchase Lowers adoption and
usage
Create and charge for
premium offering
Unclear what this would
be; strains focus on core
product
Sell user data to news
outlets, advertisers,
campaigns
Severely risks neutrality
Grant-funded and focus on
user adoption
We have to make money
eventually…

28. 28

29. 29

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32

33. 33

34. 34

35. 35

36. 36

37. 37

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

42. NeXtream bridges the lean forward and lean back
experience, inferring information from passive
users and acquiring information from active users
to enhance the overall experience.
Lean Forward
Social
Media
Personal
Media
Sit Back

43. NeXtream explores the experience of
replacing a corporate television
network with a social network.

44. Comment
asynchronously on
content
Bookmark &
Favorite Clips are
shared with friends
See what your
friends are watching
Feed of your friends’
video watching
habits
Social Network Features

45. Larger Community
Top YouTube Videos, Digg, etc.
Social Network
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
User
Thumbs Up/Down
Viewed Clips
Favorites
Nextream builds your channels via a
series of steps: larger community, social
network, and each user.

47. Reinven&ng
TV
Commercials
Derek
Ham,
Seema
Prem

49. With
Virtual
Shopping
Virtual
Groceries

50. Live
Data

51. With
Virtual
Shopping
Virtual
Shopping
Cart
Place
your
groceries
in
the
cart
and
pick
them
up
at
your
local
Grocery
Store.

52. Virtual
TVl
In
the
Game
the
TV
Program
con@nues
At
any
@me,
toggle
between
your
virtual
TV
and
Full
Screen
experience
.
Either
way
you’ll
never
miss
a
beat.

53. Program
Linked
Avatars
In
the
Game
the
TV
Program
con@nues
Look!
It’s
Oscar
and
Kevin!
Are
we
in
Scranton,
PA?

54. In
the
Game
the
TV
Program
con@nues
Virtual
Store
Monitors

55. Or
stream
tradi@onal
adver@sements
Virtual
Store
Monitors

56. There
are
a
whole
assortment
of
add-­‐ons
Keep
a
Shopping
List
Get
Specials
and
Discounts
Customize
SeBngs
Connect
on
Facebook
Connect
to
the
Web

57. Commercial
BreakTV
Program Virtual
World
(Environment)
Cont.
TV
Program
Product
Shopping
Product
Adver&sement
Virtual
Cart
Virtual
Items
In
Game
Display
Screens
Program
Linked
Avatars
In
Game
Display
Screens Virtual
TV
Virtual
assistant
Social
Connec&vity
Virtual
Games
Recipe
Sharing
Coupon
Sharing
Seasonal
Themed
Environments
TV
Program
Specific
Loca@on
Based

58. Connect
with
Friends
and
Family
via
Facebook!
Play
Games,
Share
Recipes,
or
Pass
along
Coupons.

59. Get
great
advice
with
a
personal
shopping
assistant.

60. Get
great
advice
with
a
personal
shopping
assistant.
Highlighted
Healthy
Choices

61. Gather friends.
Invade bar.
Take over TV.
Takeover TV heralds a new era of bar patronage where you and your
like-minded friends are in charge of the screens.
Public locations gain identity through crowd personality and demeanor.

62. TakeoverTV

67. DIALTV
YOUR CHANNELS
DialTV is a radically simplified television viewing and discovery system, as easy to use as an old-
fashioned TV dial. Anticipating the day when all content will be available on-demand, DialTV replaces
traditional “network” channels with personalized and community channels. The goal is to seamlessly combine
the best of a passive “lean back” experience, a sense of shared community viewing, and a content discovery
system tailored to each viewerʼs interests. A key component of the system is a simple tangible user interface,
modeled after a 1970s CRT television dial. The top dial selects the channel (1-10) and the bottom toggles

68. Cam View: Request Details

69. Cam View: Shooting
Two-Way System
mock-up
Camera controls:
If Requester wants to
pan the camera, arrows
will flash
Chat:
Requester can send
interview questions

70. World
TV
“The
whole
world
within
your
reach”

72. C O M M E N T V
Mark
I can believe he said that... Where does this
come from? I am a little bit lost
Kendra
This argument comes from long ago, at the begining of this season
he was arguing with Wilson for the same thing. See the link
S7 - E2
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74. Thanks!