Despite Media Companies’ Best Efforts, ‘TV Everywhere’ Is Nowhere

Reuters

People are streaming online video more than ever before but only 17% of pay TV subscribers have watched cable programming online using so-called “TV Everywhere” services, according to a new study.

The study, from research firm GfK Media, is the latest bad news for big media companies’ TV Everywhere initiative, which is aimed at reinforcing the value of traditional cable subscriptions. But since its launch four years ago, the effort has been plagued by delays in launch as a result of difficult rights negotiations between various entertainment companies and pay TV operators – cable, satellite and phone companies.

TV Everywhere requires pay TV subscribers to sign in with their pay TV providers’ credentials to access TV programming online. The services let people watch on-demand programs, and in some cases live TV channels, on personal computers as well as mobile devices like iPads and smartphones inside the home. In a few cases the content is available outside the home.

One major obstacle, the 1000-person study showed, is the requirement for people to sign in with their cable account details to prove that they are paying video subscribers. Seventy percent of pay TV subscribers who have ever watched programming online said they would be deterred from watching Internet TV content if it required them to sign in with their cable account credentials.

TV Everywhere began as a joint push from Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp. as the industry’s response to the threat of cord cutting posed by the rising tide of cheap online video alternatives. The availability of content varies with channel and pay TV provider. As a result of a deal struck between Comcast Corp. and Walt Disney Co. last year, for instance, Comcast customers can watch ESPN live  outside the home on tablets or mobile phones over the Internet. But other deals have been far more limited in scope.

One of the main issues that has been separating entertainment companies and pay TV providers is the question of which will deal directly with consumers, traditionally the province of providers. While providers like Comcast have made a big push to make content available online through their own website or apps – in Comcast’s case, Xfinity — channels like ESPN, Time Warner’s HBO and CNN have their own individual apps and websites with TV programming content. Those give consumers a direct relationship with channels they haven’t traditionally had.

So far, in the battle for online eyeballs, the programmers appear to have the edge. The GfK study shows that 37% of folks who have ever viewed TV online watched the content through a TV network’s app or website, while only 30% of those surveyed reported watching through a cable operator or other distributor’s online portals. That could partly be because TV watchers associate what they’re watching more with a TV channel than with their cable provider. But cable executives believe eventually customers will choose their portals so they can find everything in one place—without sifting through a number of apps.

One bright spot for distributors is that about a quarter of respondents said that they are more likely to keep their existing providers’ services as a result of their TV everywhere products.  For the vast majority of those surveyed, however, it still hasn’t made a difference in how they view their cable, satellite or phone company.

Samsung to Step Up Efforts in U.S. PC Market

Samsung Electronics Co. is known particularly well for its smartphones, tablets and televisions.

Raymond Wah, an executive at the company’s computer division, wants to add PCs to that list. The former Hewlett-Packard Co. executive said Samsung plans to amp up its efforts in the U.S., where it still lags major competitors such as H-P Dell Inc Lenovo Group Ltd. and Apple Inc. in market share.

“Given that now we have market leadership in the smartphone space, you will see a lot more exciting new go-to-market strategies from us,” he said during an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show here. He declined to describe any of those efforts in detail, saying that some strategy was still being fleshed out after a recent internal reorganization that brought the PC division together with the company’s mobile division.

But, he said, Samsung has determined that it wants to grow its share of the PC market. “We will put a lot more energy toward it,” he said. “We want to be aggressive.”

Samsung made a splash in the U.S. with its Series 9 computer a couple years ago. It was well regarded among technology experts and reviewers for their sleek design and good quality hardware. But despite dramatic growth over the past year, Samsung says, it still remains just out of reach of the top five vendors in the U.S.

Mr. Wah expects growth in the coming year to come from as a result of a variety of market forces, such as struggles among other PC makers to maintain sales and the rapid rise of Samsung’s mobile device products to become the most popular in the world.

More importantly, Mr. Wah said the proliferation of Samsung tablets, smartphones and televisions allows the company to intertwine its technology in a way that few others have accomplished.

“There’s clearly an opportunity to improve the experience across all three screens,” he said. “Samsung is in the best position with our technology advantage, our focus on design and quality, to bridge and stitch them all together.”

Samsung isn’t alone approaching this strategy. Apple is perhaps best known for its top-down strategy, where all its devices are designed to work together. An iPhone, for example, can wirelessly beam photos to a computer, an iPad or an Apple TV set-top box, plugged into a high-definition television. The devices can share music and movies too, among other things.

That strategy has helped make Apple the world’s most highly valued technology company, with nearly unprecedented growth and success for its relatively small bevy of devices.

Samsung has attempted to replicate some of Apple’s features with its AllShare technology, which replicates the ability to beam music, movies and photos across devices. The company has also begun adding applications to its televisions, alongside new services, such as T-Commerce in which a customers can use their tablets to buy clothes and other items they see in a television show as it’s happening.

But there are some things Samsung can’t easily add its flair: Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software. For the most part, Windows 8, with its well-regarded live boxes full of regularly updated information such as new email alerts and the latest song playing in a jukebox app, can’t easily be changed to mimic other Samsung software on its tablets or televisions.

Instead, Samsung is focusing on building out services and creating appealing designs, such as its new Ativ line of Windows-powered tablets and smartphones. Mr. Wah said Ativ, which is the reversed spelling of “vita,” the latin word for “life,” is growing into another category of devices for Samsung.

And though he declined to discuss Samsung’s plans, Mr. Wah said he’s excited by recent announcements by wireless carriers to begin including 4G superfast wireless connections into laptops.

In the mean time, Mr. Wah said Samsung will continue to focus on delivering premium products such as the Series 9 and Series 7 aluminum body laptops, which have been praised for their sleek and sturdy design as well as their performance, in hopes that the U.S. market will respond.

“Brand, quality and design have to be top notch,” he said. “We are very confident.”