Event Preview: Interactive TV Show Europe

The seventh annual Interactive TV Show Europe will take place October 24th-25th at the Hotel Meliá Roma Aurelia Antica in Rome, Italy. Conference organizers tell [itvt] that they located the event in Rome this year (previously it has been held in London, Paris and Barcelona) "partly because of the recent progress in the Italian ITV market and partly because it is a great city to hold a conference." This year, the organizers expect the conference–which will be opened by Sky Italia CEO, Tom Mockridge, and which will feature nearly 50 other speakers–to attract over 500 participants from over 35 countries: attendees typically hail from broadcasters, entertainment and media companies, platform operators, and ITV technology providers. Although the event is obviously targeted at the European ITV market, its organizers claim that it attracts many attendees from the rest of the world, as it provides an opportunity not only to find out more about the latest developments in the ITV space in Europe, but to network with European ITV executives. To help attendees network more effectively, the first day of the conference will offer a session called "Speed-Dating for Business," which will formalize the networking process by providing attendees with a chance to schedule seven 20-minute meetings with other attendees and supplier companies (for more on this session, see below). In addition, the second day of the conference will feature a series of what the organizers call "themed luncheon discussions," which will allow attendees to talk about topics of relevance to their businesses with a group of like-minded peers.

[itvt] subscribers will receive a 15% discount on the registration fee for the conference: to receive the discount, enter "itvt" as a booking code on the registration form. The registration form can be found online at http://www.itv.access-events.com/pages/delegatex1_reg.asp

DAY ONE

8:50AM-9:00AM
Chairman’s Introduction

Scott Gronmark, managing director of UK-based interactive TV consultancy, Scott Gronmark Associates, will introduce the event and outline the issues that will likely be discussed in the course of its sessions. Gronmark is the former head of interactive TV at the BBC and an occasional contributor to [itvt]. Expect his introduction to be pithy and informational.

9:00AM-9:30AM
Welcome Address

The event’s welcome address will be given by Tom Mockridge, CEO of News Corp.-owned satellite TV provider, Sky Italia (note: the company, which uses OpenTV’s middleware, was founded in April, 2003 out of the merger of Telepiu and Stream).

9:30AM-10:10AM
Making ITV pay for brands, channels and platforms

Ian Shepherd, managing director of Sky Interactive, will explain how interactive TV is an increasingly important part of Sky’s business, and examine such topics as: how to develop ITV services that connect with customers; how to build value from ITV–whether by developing applications that generate revenue directly or that provide less tangible benefits, such as increased customer loyalty (and thus a reduction in customer churn); and how ITV can be used to create interactive brand environments that are a "step beyond" traditional red-button i-ads (for more on these, see below).

Shepherd is a very articulate speaker and, due to Sky’s relatively large footprint and early championing of ITV, is in one of the most influential positions in the ITV industry, so this should be a must-attend presentation. Perhaps his most significant achievement is the extensive re-design of Sky’s interactive services portal, Sky Active, which he oversaw late last year, and which is intended to provide viewers with what Sky describes as a "more televisual" experience. The redesigned portal makes greater use of video and original editorial content than before, to create what the company terms a "magazine-style channel that offers on-demand entertainment and information as an alternative to conventional television." Viewers who access Sky Active are now presented with a video-based "front page" that offers a schedule of original short programs produced by a dedicated editorial team, and updated throughout the course of the day. The second element of the redesign is a "contents page," immediately below the front page, that features a 16-screen video mosaic. The mosaic–each of whose 3- to 4-minute video loops serves as a selectable icon–is intended to simultaneously promote and facilitate access to Sky Active’s various services. A third level of the redesigned portal, reached by clicking on the screens in the video mosaic, provides access to its interactive services–which are presented via "features" pages which offer original content and which are organized according to topics such as "Health and Lifestyle," "Puzzles & Jackpots," and "Friends, Dating and Chat."

According to Shepherd, one important thing that Sky Interactive has learned since launching the redesigned Sky Active is that the latter has significant potential as a medium for advertising, allowing advertisers to create multi-faceted, interactive "brand experiences" that blur the distinction between advertising and content: "We’ve realized that Sky Active can be used to enhance the effectiveness of the interactive elements that sit behind TV adverts on linear channels on the Sky platform," he told [itvt] in an interview earlier this year. "So we’ve been saying to our interactive advertisers, ‘It seems a shame to build all that interactivity into your campaign and then have it be accessible for only 30 seconds at a time, while your linear advert is airing. Why not make your campaign’s interactive elements available on Sky Active for the duration of your campaign?’ And what we’ve found, when advertisers have taken us up on this suggestion–and I should point out that we don’t relegate interactive ads to a special area, but instead list them as content alongside Sky Active’s other content–is that a decent proportion of the interaction that an i-ad gets is from people accessing it through Sky Active rather than through linear spots. A good example of this approach," he continued, "is what we did with advertising for EMI for the Chemical Brothers’ new album. Initially, their campaign was just going to consist of linear ads with interactive elements accessed by the red button, but we ended up putting those interactive elements inside Sky Active. We also ended up running Chemical Brothers video footage on our front page, providing Sky Active viewers with interesting content that was, at the same time, advertising–as you know, the regulations that prohibit such hybrid content on linear TV don’t apply to interactive TV platforms. So, as a result, you had a campaign that consisted of linear spots, red-button interactivity, interactive portal presence, and advertiser-funded programming–elements that are normally considered separately–all coming together to create one continuous brand experience. The results of that campaign speak for themselves: 250,000 viewers used the interactive app to sample tracks from the album, and 60,000 went on to buy it. And, interestingly, a third of the people who used the app accessed it through Sky Active rather than through the red button." (Note: for the rest of [itvt]’s interview with Ian Shepherd, see Issue 6.10 Part 1.)

10:10AM-11:10AM
ITV across Europe–a Review of Activity in Europe

A panel of experts will provide an overview of the current state of the European interactive TV market. Panelists will address such questions as: which country has the most interactive programming? Which country has the most interactive viewers? And which country has the most standalone interactive services? Panelists will include Carlo Rombola, director of strategic planning at Spanish ITV consultancy, Plot 4; Alberto Sigismondi, director of content, R&D, at Italian media giant, Mediaset (note: the latter offers an array of MHP-based ITV applications over digital terrestrial; for more on these, see [itvt]’s interview in Issue 5.81 with Marco Tosi, managing director of IconMedialab Italy, the company that provides Mediaset with many of those applications); Andrea Malgara, managing director of Germany’s SevenOne Media (note: the latter is the sales house of ProSieben Sat1 Media); Yannic Beckers, general manager of Belgium’s Paratel (note: the latter has just created Belgium’s first interactive TV ad–see [itvt] Issue 6.28 Part 3); and Jose Luis Vasquez, managing director of Spanish ITV applications, services and tools provider, Fresh IT.

11:10AM-11:35AM
Coffee Break

11:35AM-12:05PM
What’s Happening in the USA?/Commissioning Interactive TV

During this timeslot, the conference will provide attendees with a choice of two parallel "streams":

• What’s Happening in the USA, in which Eric Shanks, SVP of advanced services and content at News Corp.-controlled satellite TV provider, DirecTV, will provide an overview of recent developments in the US ITV market. Expect him to discuss DirecTV’s own ITV plans (including, perhaps, the implications of its decision to cease marketing TiVo-based PVR service, in favor of a PVR service based on the XTV technology of its News Corp.-stablemate, NDS), which have been a topic of much speculation in the US.
• Commissioning Interactive TV, in which an expert panel will discuss such topics as why a linear show’s ITV elements should be commissioned alongside the show itself, rather than "bolted on" as an afterthought. Panelists include Stuart Murphy, controller of BBC diginet, BBC Three; Claire Tavenier, SVP of interactive at FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide; and Dr. Simone Emmelius, managing director of ZDF Vision (Germany).

12:05PM-12:35PM
Asia Review

Etienne Grange, CEO of French interactive TV technology provider, NPTV, will discuss his company’s past and present experiences with content and platform partners in the Asian market. Among other things, NPTV’s technology and authoring tools are used by Malaysian pay-TV provider, Astro, to offer an interactive TV service.

12:35PM-1:45PM
Networking Lunch

This networking lunch, sponsored by Vodafone, will feature presentations from Sally-Anne Burwell, senior marketing manager at Vodafone UK, who describes her role at that company as "developing mobile as a media channel, sales channel and operational tool," and Jon Carney, creative director of Marvellous, a creative agency for mobile media. Expect them to discuss, among other things, the emerging interactive mobile video space.

1:45PM-2:15PM
What Makes Good Enhanced TV?

Tom Williams, creative director for interactive television at the BBC, will address such topics as new opportunities for enhancing programming with interactive elements; taking a multiplatform approach to enhanced TV; and what the BBC will be doing in the enhanced TV space going forward.

2:15PM-5:10PM
"Speed-Dating for Business"

Taking its cue from speed-dating events, in which singles are set up on mini-blind dates with multiple potential partners in the course of an evening, this session will allow attendees to have seven short meetings with conference delegates and interactive TV technology suppliers. Attendees must, however, work with the conference organizers to pre-schedule their meetings.

5:10PM-5:45PM
The Role of Interactive in Driving Digital Adoption

Noel Leslie, EVP of interactive services at chellomedia (note: the latter is best known for its chello mistral interactive TV authoring, synchronization, scheduling and playout product suite, which recently became the first tool to be accredited by Sky Interactive for use with the latest release of its interactive advertising templates), will attempt to determine whether the availability of interactive TV services encourages consumers to upgrade to digital TV service. To illustrate his presentation, Leslie will draw on the experiences of chellomedia’s parent company, Liberty Global, in rolling out ITV services on its pay-TV platforms in Europe.

5:45PM-6:15PM
Interactive Television Becoming Reality:
Where the Business Models of Telecom and Entertainment Meet

Stefan Jenzowsky, VP of Siemens Com Strategy (Germany), will make the case that the telco, IT, media and entertainment industries are converging into a single TIME industry. He will discuss, among other things, business models for interactive TV, and interactive TV on mobile and fixed-line phones. He will also provide demonstrations of some of the technologies he will be discussing.

6:15PM-6:30PM
Interactive TV Solutions

This presentation will be given by Stefan Unterhuber, who has been working with Siemens as a consultant on applications and integration since 2004.

6:30PM
Drinks Reception

This reception, billed by conference organizers as another opportunity to network, is sponsored by Two Way TV.

DAY TWO

8:50AM-8:55AM
Chairman’s Introduction

Scott Gronmark, managing director of UK-based interactive TV consultancy, Scott Gronmark Associates, will provide a recap of the first day of the conference and outline the issues that will likely be discussed in the course of the second day.

8:55AM-9:25AM
Keynote Address:
New Business Opportunities for ITV–Customizing Mass Interactivity

Christiane zu Salm, CEO of Euvia Media (Germany), will deliver this keynote address. Expect her to draw on her experience developing and producing her company’s two interactive TV channels–quiz channel, 9Live, and travel sales channel, sonnenklar TV–which allow viewers to participate via the phone.

9:25AM-9:50AM
How Do Young People Interact with the Television–the Sofia’s Diary
Case Study

Nuno Bernardo, general manager of Portugal’s Beactive, will present a case study illustrating how younger viewers interact with TV. Anecdotal evidence, at least, seems to show that young people tend to be interactive multitaskers. Bernardo’s case study will center around the interactive soap opera, "Sophia’s Diary." The show, which is simulcast on TV, radio and the Internet, allows audience participation via SMS and IVR, and generates additional revenues through product placement and other creative sponsorship opportunities.

9:50AM-10:15AM
Creating Innovative Cross-Platform Formats

Jean de Fougerolles, CEO of Two Way TV, will illustrate his presentation with case studies of successful cross-platform interactive TV services, including Sky Movies Quiz and Texas Hold’em Poker. Two Way TV describes its "core mission" as the delivery of content across multiple platforms, including TV, mobile, 3G video, and the Web: as part of its cross-platform strategy, it recently acquired the ITV assets of UK-based Mindhouse, including the latter’s Mindset service delivery platform–which supports the deployment of interactive services across satellite, terrestrial and cable television, IPTV, the Web and mobile.

10:15AM-10:50AM
Adding Value to Kids’ Channels through Interactive Games/Driving
Converged Interactivity/Making User-Friendly ITV

During this timeslot, and during the timeslot immediately following it, the conference will provide attendees with a choice of three parallel "streams," devoted to "Kids and Youth," "Entertainment," and "Design and Navigation Issues" respectively:

• In Adding Value to Kids’ Channels through Interactive Games, Jesper Knutsson, managing director of NDS Denmark (note: Knutsson was previously managing director of Danish ITV games developer, Visionik, which was acquired by NDS in 2002), will draw on his company’s experience providing games to the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids. Those games–most of which appear as semi-transparent overlays over a channel’s linear feed–are designed to ensure that children stay tuned to the channel, especially during commercial breaks.
• In Driving Converged Interactivity, David Bainbridge, managing director of YooMedia Enhanced Solutions, will draw on case studies from the company’s multiplatform interactive dating service, Dateline, and its multiplatform interactive games channel, Avago. (Note: for more on the recently launched mobile versions of these services, see [itvt] Issue 6.16 Part 3.)
• Making User-Friendly Interactive TV will consist of presentations from Dale Herigstad, executive creative director of Schematic (the company that is responsible for, among other things, the Emmy Award-winning design of Cablevision’s iO ITV platform), Nicoletta Iacobacci, head of the ITV Content Factory at RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, and Nigel Wally, managing director of Decipher (note: the latter is the company behind the ITV testing and research laboratory, iBurbia: earlier this year, iBurbia teamed with ITV Sales, the advertising sales arm of UK terrestrial broadcaster, the Independent Television Network, and interactive design agency, BBC Broadcast, on an initiative designed to educate UK creative agencies about how interactive advertising can complement traditional linear TV advertising, and to help them make their interactive commercials creatively richer and more compelling).

10:50AM-11:20AM
Interacting with the Youth Market/Making Money out of Sport/Creating
Interactive Content and New Revenue Streams

The three parallel "streams" for this timeslot are:

• Interacting with the Youth Market, in which Matthew Kershaw, head of interactive at MTV Networks, UK and Ireland, will discuss, among other things, how broadcasters can use the red button to exploit the market for ringtones and other downloads. Expect him also to discuss MTV UK’s recent announcement that it will transform one of its linear TV channels, MTV Hits, into what it calls "the UK’s first multi-platform, fully interactive music experience," under the auspices of an initiative dubbed "MyMTV." According to the broadcaster, the channel will use the Web, mobile phones and TV to allow viewers to determine its content, look and tone: viewers will be invited to create on-screen characters which will be able to dictate and alter playlists, send on-screen messages, and terminate music tracks they don’t like (for more on this, see [itvt] Issue 6.23 Part 3).
• Making Money out of Sport, which will be presented by John Zaccario, VP of product management at ESPN/ABC Sports.
• Creating Interactive Content and New Revenue Streams, in which Jason George, Flextech’s controller of interactive programming, will discuss such topics as what content works and on which platform? What do broadcasters bring to the party? And where are the new revenue streams?

11:20AM-11:45AM
Coffee Break

11:45AM-12:15PM
Mobile in the Broadcast Sector/ New Ways for Customers to Interact
through On-Demand Services/ Content Production for TV, Web and
Mobile

During this timeslot, and during the timeslot immediately following it, the conference will provide attendees with a choice of three parallel "streams," devoted to TV and mobiles, IPTV and content delivery respectively:

• Mobile in the Broadcast Sector will be presented by James McNab, head of corporate affairs at Opera Telecom.
• New Ways for Customers to Interact through On-Demand Services will be presented by Paolo Agostinelli, marketing director of Italian IPTV service provider, Fastweb.
• Content Production for TV, Web and Mobile will feature presentations by Colin Prior, director of business development at SysMedia and by Gordon Maynard, technical director at Teletext.

12:15PM-12:45PM
Optimizing Content for the Mobile: Examples and Case Studies/
Acquiring Content, Protecting Revenues and Securing Video Delivery
to Devices beyond Set-Top Boxes/ Creating Compelling Content for
the ITV Channel

The three parallel "streams" for this timeslot are:

• Optimizing Content for the Mobile: Examples and Case Studies, which will be presented by Gunnar Garfors, director of mobile services at NRK (Norway).
• Acquiring Content, Protecting Revenues and Securing Video Delivery to Devices beyond Set-Top Boxes, which will be presented by Douglas Light, SVP of sales and business development at Widevine Technologies. (Note: Integration of its Cypher Virtual SmartCard content-security technology with third-party chips that run devices beyond the set-top box is a key element of Widevine’s product strategy: the company recently hired Microsoft veteran, Jim Veres, as VP of advanced engineering, and put him in charge of embedding its technology into video-processor, consumer-electronics and mobile-device chipsets–see [itvt] Issue 6.16 Part 1.)
• Creating Compelling Content for the ITV Channel, which will be presented by Dominic Laval, COO of interactive TV tools provider, emuse.

12:45PM-2:10PM
Themed Luncheon Discussions

A series of discussions will be available, allowing attendees to converse about topics of relevance to their businesses.

2:10PM-2:40PM
On Demand: What are they Learning and What’s Working?

Peter Suetens, manager for strategic marketing, TV at Belgian Flemish-language public broadcaster, VRT, Jack Davison, head of VOD product at ntl, and Paolo Agostinelli, director of marketing at Italy’s Fastweb, will discuss their companies’ experiences with VOD.

2:40PM-3:20PM
PVR Penetration–the Great Opportunity

Paul Bristow, chief technologist at MHP and OCAP specialist, Osmosys, Charlie Horrell, COO of satellite and terrestrial at consumer electronics manufacturer, Thomson, Robert Leach, head of interactive services at Sky, and Nikolas Samios, founder and managing director of Germany’s MoreTV (note: the latter offers, among other things, DVR services, rich superteletext portals, and interactive TV services over DVB and IP), will discuss, among other things, how wide deployment of PVR will affect interactive TV (for example, by enabling video-rich applications that can draw on content stored on a PVR hard drive), and how PVR’s will affect viewer behavior.

3:20PM-4:30PM
Interactive Advertising

Sky’s Robert Leach, Simon Smith, creative director of interactive agency, Weapon7, Richard Fyffe, general manager of ITV at South Africa’s ITV-enabled satellite TV provider, MultiChoice Africa, and Jamie Galloway, director of digital media at the UK government’s media and communications agency, COI, will discuss such topics as how to improve measurement of viewer interactions with i-ads, and how interactive advertising is moving beyond simple direct-response ads and beginning to exhibit the same creativity as is seen in linear commercials. In this session and in the previous session, expect Leach to discuss Sky’s plans to enable recording of ITV applications on its Sky+ DVR. The company believes that the capability will benefit not only ITV-enabled programming but interactive advertising, because interactivity provides viewers with an incentive to engage with ads that they might otherwise skip.

4:30PM
Close and Tea

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