IPTV’s Forward March

Posted on September 28, 2006
Filed Under Insights |

KPN the Dutch telco have a strong presence at crossmedia week - as you’d expect so I sat down and talked to the head of their consumer content division, Joris Van Heukelom, formerly of MTV.

They’re quite different organisations, telcos and TV companies I put to him. Well telcos have to embrace creativity that’s for sure, was his answer. “You see an enormous gap between telcos and creative content people.”

KPN though have decided that content has to become a core feature of their strategy. It’s not that they’re becoming a media company but the combination of differenet kinds of content, value added services and education seem to make them at least a content company.

The current KPN IPTV offer is pretty basic - what you see from cable companies but it is going to evolve fast. By 2008 Joris expects to be providing useres with tools to manipluate the content they are watching and allowing them to create their own content from it. By 2010 he expects TVs to have all the functionality of a PC.

He also stresses that telcos have to work along with broadcasters and likewise broadcasters with telcos. The reason? Telcos can extend the reach of the broadcaster.

One interesting plan he told me about. KPN will, next year, launch a narrowcast service to trains. That means broadcasters can put schedule previews and service announcements up on the screen in commuter trains.

It’s just one example. He also believes broadcasters have to change their business model rapidly and not all will make the transition.

Falling margins at broadcasters mean they are not investing in the development of individuals with digital creative skills. That means to date not one of them has originated a digital product in the way that for example MySpace did. That’s despite the history of creativity in TV. They need to invest in the right people says Joris and skills but tehre’s alegcy of arrogance that stops them doing that.

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