TV.NXT 2014: "STBs have had a dramatic shift in the way people are interacting with TV and consuming content": Atul Phadnis

After the shift from analogue cable to digital, there were many unanswered questions that perplexed operators, broadcasters and distributors alike. How is the set-to-box (STB) changing viewer behaviour from their analogue days? How are viewers locating and landing on their favourite channels and programmes now that the STB has a structured menu, while the number of channels has grown 4-5 times? Do viewers remember channel numbers to reach their preferred channel or use the STB channel guide?

Atul Phadnis, founder and CEO, What's-On India used his study, 'T-Send' (Television, Search, Navigation and Discovery), to answer questions about the changing environment at TV.NXT 2014.

According to Phadnis, after digitisation, the business of delivering to the same home has undergone a transformation not only in terms of economics, but also in the way viewers were receiving signals or the way the delivery pipe was carrying those signals to them. Viewers discovered a phenomenal change in the way they get to select TV channels, shows and how they would they typically watch on the TV screen.

If one looks at the 39 top cities that have been digitised, 20 million STBs on the cable side were installed during the DAS I and DAS II phases. "These STBs have created a dramatic shift in the way people were interacting with the TV set and were consuming content from the pipe," said Phadnis.

Set ways

However, there were many families who were finding it difficult to adapt to the change. There have been tales about people struggling with the new system, especially the cable STB remote. "That is unfortunate from the business point of view because, if the second type of families don't understand all the channels and value-added-services (VAS) their cable provider is giving them through STBs, it's a loss of an opportunity from the standpoint of the industry in general," Phadnis averred.

There have been two changes that have taken place since the introduction of these STBs in households. "Firstly, with analogue, the random order of channels placements resulted in ad hoc viewership that added up to large numbers for genres like music, movies and news. Now, people have a structured menu and they think about what they want to watch," Phadnis explained.

Another thing that has changed is the way the viewer navigates. It will depend on his comprehension, what his demography is and how much time he has spent with STB and its remote. "Ensuring that viewers comprehend and are easily able to navigate is a question of money and economics, because it's linked to consumption and viewership which is linked to discovery of more channels," he added.

Structured well

In an interesting finding, T-Send revealed that the software cities - Bangalore and Pune - show different behaviour in terms of STB usage. Bangalore, where digitisation first started, is less evolved than Pune. The latter gave more pronounced behaviour patterns in terms of EPG features - channel guide, now next, or favourite channels.

The structured menu is expected to bring down random surfing in terms of navigation behaviour across markets. Phadnis said that a large proportion of people are doing random searching and remembering logical channel number (LCN). "This number will come down when the population of these 20-25 million which has just adopted the new cable STBs actually stabilises."

Another finding is that the navigation behavioural patterns across operators is different with Tata Sky and In Cable being on two opposite spectrums. Random surfing is least in Tata Sky (22 per cent) and maximum in In Cable (58 per cent). "That may be a function of channel fluctuation on In Cable through the initial phase of DAS," Phadnis pointed out.

Phadnis threw light on some intersting insights. User Interface (UI) Simplicity is important because complicated STB menus discourage viewer whereas simplicity of the UI results in rapid viewer adoption. Also, viewers respond well to rich and visual UI delivered in the viewer's language of choice.

There is affinity and engagement of a viewer towards a genre that will determine viewer's navigational pattern within that genre. Additionally, it is observed that younger, educated viewers navigate differently compared to older or less educated viewers.

Another interesting insight is that every genre has its own distinct way of intra-genre viewer search and navigation. "Viewership is a function of what is being played at that moment. It's not the same in case of general entertainment channels because here one knows what time his/her show will air and will tune in."