TargetTV is an R&D joint venture of Comcast and QVC with the mission of innovating and then commercializing applications based on the technologies of digital broadband cable television. To understand what digital television is (and is not), click here for a discussion of that topic. As the cable television industry continues its rapid shift to digital television from analog, our applications and services will enhance the television experience to subscribers, to the cable service providers, to advertisers, and to programmers.
The first application TargetTV developed is anonymous audience measurement. "Anonymous" means that using our patented process, we cannot ever know exactly whose household we are measuring, although we know the behaviors of each set top box. This permits us to know the behaviors of how individual viewers watch television, but not be able to identify the viewers. The anonymity is important to protect the viewers from any intrusion of their privacy. The behavior tracking is important because we are able to determine patterns of behavior, so that, for example, advertisers can produce more appealing ads, and programmers can produce more appealing media.
Over 120,000 set top boxes in three geographic areas reported anonymous viewing for as long as eighteen months in our technical trial period. We processed over 7.5 million channel change "clicks" per day during that time, with as many as 3,500 clicks per second processed during peak periods. Part of the challenge of any interactive TV application is the very large volume of activity that can happen in peak times.
We learned quite a bit about television viewing behavior, and behavior during some specific programming. For example, we studied what happened during the Grammies when an ad "pod" (group of ads) came on. Opposite the Grammies was Survivor and a local NBA game. We studied how viewers left the grammies during the pods and where they went, and when they came back.
Below is a prototype of what would be a real-time display of viewership of a particular channel in a particular geographic area (or nationally). For example, it might track CBS nationally, or just KYW in Philadelpia.
We are deploying our interactive Buy Button during the first half of 2003, first to one geographic area and then to several others. We want to measure how well viewers like the interactive commerce, how easy it is for them to use it, and how much they are inclined to use it. We will be putting the Buy Button on the QVC broadcast in those areas, and the viewer can execute a purchase of on-air product by simply clicking on their remote control. They never leave the show, just answer a few prompts about what they want to buy and how they want to buy it. The prompts are at the bottom of the screen. This is very fast, very easy, very simple, and very intuitive. We think it will be well-received by the public.
The Target TV Team, minus Eileen, April 16, 2003, celebrating Phase II. The team is left to right: Chris, Justin,
Jerry, Will, Tom, Cliff, Chuck, Michelle, Rich, and Kep.
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