Consumer Driven TV -what is it? (and what's TV?)

Yesterday was a hectic day (for me) amongst other things I did was attend a presentation  organised by the RTS London Section at  what used to be LWT and is now The Television  Centre.

Not the best seat in the house

The venue it is  on London's Southbank  and the subject to be covered was (some of) the  issues that some attendees at CES thought relevant to the TV industry.


The format of the presentation was to first of all identify the theme, take a few personal views and then finish with something of a 'Q and A'.
The theme identified as we move to so many screens PC TV. Tablet and phone was what is TV  one Uber Geek admitted to possessing 11 screens which unless he's a TV shop owner seems a little excessive.


The presenting group were a diverse bunch brought together by Terry Marsh and were:

Ken Blakeslee,  an American who is  Chairman of  WebMobility. Ken identified the stand out topic of CES as wearable tech - not a look I personally am planning to adopt anytime soon.

Ali Shah, Head of Technology Direction, BBC a technical expert who was not averse to wearing Google Glass despite fears (his own) of looking a Glasshole (I can see that catching on) he did try (of course) to embed the quality aspects of the BBC in all that will succeed. He sees (have we heard of this before??) more immersive and personalised TV , perhaps tied to sport and the refinement of recommendation engines (like Amazon you've watched this how about this etcetera) 

Phill Stevenson, Senior Researcher, ACB (Actual Customer Behaviour), ACB carry out research around how families use TV, it's surely a rich field but beware there might be some Snake Oil Salesman interpreting some of those 'findings', ACB have done recent work around one of the biggest US TV's set pieces Superbowl seeing how the multiple screens are used to 'expand the moment' (I'd say that's another nice phrase to throw in to your TV conversations).


Katarzyna Mastela, a  journalist and  MA student in Media Management at the  University of Westminster (looks an interesting course)-  Katarzyna  was not an industry bigwig but had some thoughts on how TV is used amongst the group she knows (international Students in London) she had created some new groupings that provided another angle on how TV is developing. I think what  Katarzyna  was saying is that we use TV differently and (me here) use what we say about how we use it to impress others - I'm a multi- tasker who never watches Eastenders for example.

Vibeke Hansen who is Head of User Experience and Product Design, Arqiva,   Vibeke did not give  personal presentation and I was slightly amused to find she too was part  of the success of BBC iPlayer when she was there - how true it is that 'Success has man fathers'.

So was there a thread we can draw together from what was poked and picked? For me not too much TV is getting bigger ands smaller, more solitary and more communal and social - what is it - it's not easy to define in words but most of know it when we see it.

Your thoughts please

For me the Elephant in the room (or rather not in the room) was a voice from Samsung (other Global TV  producers are available) - they have such a big influence and role that their view would carry some weight and challenge some of the broadcast TV's sacred cows (any thoughts?)

[Look out for the presentation as a video it was recorded as a multi camera shoot]