Harmonic Aftershock

The X1 Cloud DVR is a giant leap towards "TV everywhere."

On Tuesday, Comcast announced the launch of its highly anticipated cloud-based DVR service in Boston (only). Since I was already an Xfinity X1 customer, upgrading to the cloud DVR was a somewhat simple phone call to Comcast and there’s no extra charge for it. See my 3-minute overview demo (below).

Within 24 hours, my DVR’d TV shows (as well as live TV) were available to watch on my iPad using the brand new (and super slick) Xfinity TV iOS app – as long as I’m within my home WiFi network. The exception to that (rule) is probably my favorite feature which is the ability to “take to go” recorded shows by downloading them to your mobile device.

Recorded playback works similar to a standard DVR – you can, essentially, fast forward and rewind and thus advance past commercials if you so choose (just like a regular DVR).

As I’ve mentioned in the past, it’s these kinds of features which adds tremendous value to one’s existing cable subscription and, ultimately, I believe will lead to even more TV consumption as television content becomes more and more portable and accessible. That was the promise of “TV everywhere” years ago and its vision is rapidly coming to fruition.

The hits and misses of social TV in 2014.

I wrote the following on January 15th for an upcoming social TV newsletter -- And as a testament to how quickly this space changes, in just a week and a half since I submitted this, Yahoo announced the shut down of its second screen app IntoNow and Second Screen app Viggle acquired Dijit. Plus Aereo announced yesterday that it has reached "capacity" in NYC and could no longer accept new customers (for now).

Anyway, here's what I wrote in its original form before all this news hit...

Here are 5 things in the social TV landscape that I think will either be a big #hit or a big #miss in 2014.

Second Screen Apps #miss: Lots of consolidation has been happening with social TV companies, the biggest of which was in the analytics sector in late 2012 and 2013 (SocialGuide, Bluefin Labs, Trendrr). Second screen TV apps will be a #miss this year as many will pivot, fold, or sell-out as the industry has matured around Twitter as the de facto app that mainstream audiences use while watching television. The one exception is second screen apps that are purposefully built for inherently interactive TV shows (i.e. NBC’s Million Second Quiz).

Snapchat #hit: As younger audiences flock to Snapchat, it's the perfect platform for fans to connect and get "bite sized" pieces of content from their favorite TV series in between episode airings. HBO's Girls is already paving the way for many more shows with teen and young adult followings to innovate on Snapchat as the breakout social TV #hit of 2014.

Brands + RTM #miss: Many brands continue to think that preying on big TV events in social media by live tweeting innocuous witticisms is an effective real-time marketing strategy. Without relevance and value, this is nothing more than pollution of the social TV backchannel. Yet we’ll unfortunately see more of this #miss in 2014. Brands that have restraint and are smart about when and how to engage in real-time are the ones who will be a #hit this year.

OTT Original Series #hit: With recognition at the 2013 Emmys and this year’s Golden Globe awards, Netflix Original Series have been recognized as being on par with the best of network and cable television. This momentum will lead to notable developments in the TV everywhere space, perhaps even tipping HBO to offer its HBO GO library as a stand-alone subscription service.

Aereo #hit and #miss: With the Supreme Court set to hear (and rule on) the Aereo case, its outcome has many consequences which makes it both a #hit and a #miss. But I’d argue that ultimately this is a bit #hit for the future of television as it’s yet another (positive) disruption in the marketplace (like OTT Original Series) that accelerates innovation in favor of consumers.

With the social TV space continuing to evolve so quickly, I cannot wait to see what next week (let alone next year) has in store...