ConnecTV: Results of the Field Trial Erik Boertjes, Jente Klok, Sven Schultz TNO Information and Communication Technology
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1.
SocialTV (Harboe et al., 2006) and CollaboraTV (Harrison & Amento, 2007).
Abstract
A large-scale field trial of the social TV service ‘ConnecTV’ was held in 2007 among 50 households. We found that a social TV service like ConnecTV enhances viewing experience significantly. Most revenues are expected to come from advertising and increased sales of social TVrelated services like paid content services and upgrades of existing services. 2.
Although some of ConnecTV’s functionality can be found in these services as well, other functions (like following a buddy or switching to the most popular channel) are new. We feel however, that the main contribution of our research to the body of knowledge about social interactive TV lays in the field trial of ConnecTV. To our knowledge, a field trial of this scale has not been performed before.
Introduction 4.
In ConnecTV we combine communication and content by making communication an integral part of watching TV, resulting in a social TV service that gives its users the feeling of ‘watching together’. ConnecTV allows users to see what TVprograms their friends are watching (see Figure 1), allows them to send online recommendations for interesting programs, and offers other socialoriented functionality such as ‘follow-friend’ and ‘switch to most popular channel’ (Boertjes, 2007).
The Field Trial
The main research questions our field trial was to answer are: • To which extent does ConnecTV change the TV-viewing experience? • To which extent does ConnecTV affect people’s TV-viewing habits? • What are promising ways of commercial exploitation of ConnecTV? To answer these questions, we used three different data gathering methods: online surveys, logging of all system and user actions, and experience samples: short questions dedicated to inquire about experiences and intentions related to activities of the participant at that moment (TUMCAT, 2007). The experience samples where projected on the TV-screens as multiple-choice questions to be answered by using the remote control.
Figure 1. Buddy list in ConnecTV
The pilot was divided into three phases; a baseline measurement phase in which the users could only watch ‘normal’ TV and two phases in which all ConnecTV functionalities where available.
Early 2007 we implemented ConnecTV on a Multimedia PC and later that year we conducted a field trial with ConnecTV in about 50 households in the town of Enschede, in the eastern part of The Netherlands.
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Usage of ConnecTV The buddy list is the central function of ConnecTV: it provides access to all other ConnecTV functions. On average each participant used the buddy list twice a day at the beginning of the trial to once a day later on. It was typically used at the start of a TV watching session. Switching to the channel that a buddy is watching at that moment, was the most popular functionality. In the final survey, 10% of the respondents claim to have done this at least once a day. A similar number of respondents say they sent out recommendations at least once a day.
The group of participants consisted mainly of men (91%). Most of the participants were highly educated (73%). Their ages ranged from 21-25 (23%), 26-35 (45%), and 36-45 (23%). This is a narrow group; it is not clear to what extend the results of the trial can be generalized. 3.
Results
Related work
In literature, many systems have been proposed that combine social networks with consuming content in general, or watching TV specifically. Examples are
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General opinion about ConnecTV More than 50% of the participants said that they see ConnecTV as an interesting addition to watching TV. Most participants agreed that ConnecTV needs a number of technical improvements, like a better image quality and faster zapping speed. Apart from that, participants felt that ConnecTV would be best enhanced by adding more communication functions.
Effect on viewing behaviour During the baseline measurement, logging showed that respondents were watching TV on average 16,1 hours per week. Both the logging data and the survey confirm that after a slight increase in viewing hours in phase 1 (17,9 hrs), the average hours spent watching TV decreased in phase 2 (12,3 hrs). We think this is due to technical problems, causing some people to watch TV without using the ConnecTV PC. We could not measure the viewing behaviour of those uses.
Business aspects In addition to the field trial, interviews have been held with organizations from the area of TV services like TV providers, set-top box manufacturers, consultancy companies, etc. We discussed with them the commercial opportunities of social TV services.
In the final survey, 20% of the participants said that ConnecTV caused a change in the channels they were watching. The information of the viewing behaviour of their buddies was pointed out as the most important reason for this.
Although we found that many consumers see social TV services as a welcome addition to watching TV and the ConnecTV functionality has a high perceived value, few ConnecTV users say that they are willing to pay for (part of) the ConnecTV service. Most revenues are expected to come from advertising and increased sales of social TV-related services like paid content services and upgrades of existing services. For a successful business case, sufficient mass of users and links with social networking sites such as Hyves or Facebook are essential. Social TV services seem especially viable for larger TV providers.
Effect on viewing experience To measure the viewing experience of participants, we adapted and simplified the Circumplex model described by (Desmet & Hekkert, 2007). Experience samples show that while watching TV during the baseline measurement, participants felt in general quite neutral: a little active, a little pleasant, a little isolated, a little bored and a little irritated (see the green/dark line in Figure 2). Connected (6) Isolated (0) 6 5 4 Inspired (6) Bored (0)
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Pleasant (6) Unpleasant (0)
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References
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Satisfied (6) Irritated (0)
Boertjes, E.M. (2007). ConnecTV: Share the Experience. In Adj. Proc.of EuroITV 2007 (pp. 139140).
Activated (6) Calm (0)
Desmet, P.M.A. & Hekkert, P., (2007). Framework of product experience. International Journal of Design, 1 (1), 57-66.
Baseline Measurement Pilot Phase 1 N t l (3)
Figure 2 Experience while watching TV (source: experience samples)
Harboe, G., Massey, N., Metcalf, C., Wheatley, D. & Romano, G. (2006). Perceptions of Value: The Uses of Social Television. In Proc. of EuroITV 2007 (pp. 116-125).
In Pilot Phase 1, while using ConnecTV, the following shifts occur (orange/grey line in Figure 2): participants feel a little less pleasant, more activated, more irritated, more bored and significantly more connected. The increase along the ‘Connected-Isolated’ axis was distributed evenly among quite a few functions of ConnecTV: sending and receiving recommendations, the buddy list and pop-up messages with information about which buddy is watching what channel. They all contribute to the feeling of ‘watching together’.
Harrison, C. & Amento, B., (2007). CollaboraTV – Making TV Social Again. In Adj. Proc.of EuroITV 2007 (pp. 137-138). TUMCAT. (2007). Testbed for user experience for mobile context-aware applications. www.freeband.nl/ project.cfm?id=1126
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