“The crazy world of television” according to Anthony Rose, creator of BBC iPlayer

Anthony Rose, creator of the BBC iPlayer and currently director of technology at YouView, spoke at FICOD 2010 about the future of television on the Internet. According to this expert in new consumption formats, the key now is in the content, "they must be uncoupled from television platforms so that they can move in all directions."

Anthony Rose, known for having been the head of the BBC iPlayer project and currently technology director of YouView, a free Internet television service launched by a consortium of British networks, including the BBC, has attended the International Forum on Digital Content (FICOD 2010).

The television that will emerge from this moment of “crazy changes” is the one that manages to satisfy the needs of the consumer, Rose stated.

YouView is a joint venture launched by a group of British networks that is changing the possibilities and traditional concept of watching video. Rose, who was chosen Innovator of the Year 2009 at the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards for the development of the BBC iPlayer, spoke at FICOD about his experiences in projects that are changing the way media services are offered and consumed.

Internet television has advanced rapidly in recent years, but the results are still poor. "It is necessary to find an integrated experience that offers the reliability of television and the diversity of content made possible by the Internet. It is not about offering television or the Internet, but rather something fully interactive that the viewer accepts naturally."

According to Rose, "for a long time television companies have tried to own you through differentiation. First by offering the HD format, then 3D, and now that the 3D boom is no longer news, the key is in the content." This is where YouView has found its magic formula. A service designed from the consumer's point of view, so that they can have all the content at their fingertips reliably, without having to belong to any specific platform.

YouView aims to innovate and end the fragmented market by offering technology applicable to all producers, a free content protection system that facilitates contributions from providers and multicast transmission to achieve the most efficient and least expensive way to stream. For the moment, they have focused on offering a quality service in the United Kingdom but, if the expected results are obtained, this model will soon spread.

The system, which has already sparked the interest of experts in the world of digital content, will undergo its litmus test during the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London, where “it will have the opportunity to demonstrate that it is the best way to offer 40 simultaneous streams and more than 5,000 hours of content over the Internet.”

However, according to Rose, the exponential increase in the supply of content does not have to be something positive since it inevitably leads to "the paradox of decision", "it is the same as arriving at a restaurant and being offered millions of dishes, faced with so many options the consumer cannot decide."

It is not enough to increase supply, it is necessary to drive or guide demand. First it was the television programmers who told us what to watch; then came the home page of iPalyer, an online television and radio service developed by Rose for the BBC; then the “online” prescriber services (Amazon.com style), who will drive the demand in the television of the future?

The power to guide demand will shift to consumers themselves. The user will choose from the immense offer according to recommendations from friends or self-programming that match their interests and will have the option to tag their favorite videos with the famous “like”, popularized on social networks. Following the line of the technological revolutions of web 2.0, the passivity of the receiver is put to an end.

Rose has referred to the future with uncertainty, “the changes will take longer than we think, but they will be deeper than we expect.” This reference in the field of audiovisual services ensures that the key now, more than ever, is in the content, and the need to uncouple it from television platforms so that it can move in all directions.

Video of Anthony Rose's intervention