What should digital TV really look like?

The kind folk at Broadcast magazine recently asked me to act as one of the judges for their Digital Broadcast Awards. It was a fascinating afternoon with, as you would expect, some excellent entries.

My first thought though was: why “digital”? I was told that the awards were about content aired on digital terrestrial channels which of course encompasses anything from BBC 1 and ITV to more niche channels like BBC parliament and FiveUSA as well as various shopping and information channels.

But these days, “digital terrestrial” seems a slightly out of date and artificial set of channels to base an awards ceremony around.

OK they are all free, which is, I suppose, a point of difference. But there are many “TV channels” that are now available purely online while others provide so much content online that you don’t really need a TV to watch them (although of course you still need a TV licence!).

Restricting the awards to purely “digital terrestrial” means that anything winning a “Streamy” award wouldn’t be included for the Broadcast awards.

I am not sure if all that’s particularly important. But it did nake me think about the nature of TV programmes on a digital platform and how they can be developed beyond simple long form TV to enhance the viewer’s experience.

And looking at some of the entrants to the Digital Broadcast Awards helped me identify some of the possibilities.

As well as programmes that make no attempt at online enhancement, there seem to be two aproaches, one which we might call “normal” and one which is very definitely "advanced".

Normal enhancements

There is a “normal” level that looks pretty like the “extras” you get when you buy the DVD of a movie.

• You get the long form video (of course)
• You probably get some additional editorial, perhaps some short form clips and out-takes, pictures and text based bckground
• And you are pretty certain to get one or two more interactive elements: voting perhaps, a forum where you can submit comments, even the opportunity to upload your own pictures or video
• The channel might also market the programme by uploading clips and information to other, third party sites such as YouTube where more people may discover it

Advanced enhancements

But increasingly many programmes are developing advanced online content and applications that really blur the boundaries between the long form TV video format and online interactive formats.

Thus some programmes:

• Use viewer interactions or feeds from Twitter and other sites to tweak story lines
• Create immersive video games based around the programme
• Provide alternative storylines and extra characters online
• Merge the real world with the programme by for instance sending emails to registered viewers from characters in the programme
• Introduce new characters (or even the whole programme) online before they have been seen on the programme

These advanced enhancements are where the real creativity will be seen over the coming year or two. With the rapid acceleration of the long awaited “convergence” between online and TV (as witnessed by the launch of internet enabled TVs) perhaps this area should be the focus of future awards.

It is certainly the area that programme makes should focus on!

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director

jeremy@mcand.co.uk