The tale of the Two Televisions

When Television was first introduced, it unsurprisingly resembled the Radio. It took a while, until TV started exploiting the visual nature of the medium.

As we watch TV whenever we want to and in any device, experts talked about the emergence of a converged omni-platform Television experience.

But, instead of converging, there seems to be indications of divergence i.e., into two televisions, i.e., Weekly TV, also known as the Linear TV and the new streaming TV or the Holiday TV aka Binge TV.

Netflix, which is becoming more and more like HBO these days, as content owners no longer undervalue their catalog and Amazon, who integrated the premium channels into their Streaming Partners program, lead the Holiday TV camp.

The Networks, have the unique opportunity to play in both Weekly TV and Holiday TV.

The MVPDs are at an inflection point, to retain the Weekly TV. If they got their act together, they have the unique opportunity to transform into a video experience provider which will remove the discovery pain, experience and engagement of subscribers.

Here are characteristics of the "Two Televisions":

Live TV Nano Sharing and the art of Consumer Scale

I wrote a post on Nano sharing about 5 years back. It seems to have finally come of age, for Television.

Whipclip, with its unicorn-like valuation, ushers in, the brave new era of TV clip sharing, one more time! But will it deliver?

One can share clips of the favorite moments, of their favorite TV Show, on Live TV, with a mobile app.

Sounds great in theory. But, will it cross the chasm and propel forward, in a "consumer scale" adoption trajectory.

Fred Wilson says, "Mobile does not reward feature richness. It rewards small, application specific, feature light services".

While you are watching Television, you sure could multi-task, like messaging a buddy, but would you be able to talk on the phone, while watching your favorite TV Show simultaneously?

No. It is impossible to do another "foreground task", while watching Television and enjoy both.

The Clip Sharing app makers out there, don't get this and provide a beautiful and easy-to-use editing interface to share your favorite clip and expect it to  follow a "Consumer Scale" adoption trajectory.

What? You are expecting me to mute Television and share the present moment, while I miss the next great moment. Or have an earphone ready to review the clip which is going to be shared. 

No way, this model will become consumer scale. Some are quick, to point out the distinction between clip curators and clip watchers. 

But, clip curators, as long as they are amateurs, would not want to review clips either, while enjoying live television.

The simplistic solution of "One Touch Sharing" would not work, without understanding the contextual difficulties of determining what portion of the clip that you are watching and what moment precisely, you are interested in sharing. 

That is the $100 M question.

These are very hard problems, which can be solved algorithmically though. The Victor who would achieve a "consumer scale" adoption trajectory is not the app with the "rich features" but the one, with "algorithmic clip sharing" solving the pivotal problem of determining, what precisely the user wants to share, making the sharing process super simple.

Bring it on. 

Image Courtesy: Five ways to build a $100 M Business