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As Millions of Videos Come to TV, How Will We Choose? This content requires a paid GigaOM Pro subscription

Freedom of choice is great... until there are too many choices. And the Internet-connected televisions headed to market will soon open up millions of TV-watching options. Right now, most folks use the standard TV grid to scroll through channels and programming. But the move from linear TV to a new world of on-demand broadband television will require a fresh, more elegant user interface for navigating through an ocean of viewing options. "If a user sits down and says 'nothing's on,' we have failed," says Tom Woods, director of user experience for Rovi (formerly Macrovision), "I guarantee that out of hundreds of channels, Internet content and premium services, there is something of interest to them." But finding what's of interest is the key, and future TV user interfaces will need to rely on a combination of search, recommendations, content-centric thinking and better design. […]

Featured Responses

  1. brian2
    2009/08/03 at 16:41
    My frustration with "There's nothing on" is that, as a DVR sub, I already pay for thousands of movies a month, and a hard drive to record them. Yet it's still difficult to easily find and record them. Why? B/c the grid guide is not built for time-shifted viewing.
  2. texasyellowdog
    2009/07/24 at 12:31
    Interestingly, pirate content on the web is dead simple to find. There are announcement services for new content with pointers to reviews and search engines to find older content. These are cooperative efforts without corporate fence building roadblocks. It's pretty much on-demand with all the world's content available. It's going to be tough breaking that habit.