How will current EPGs be able to accommodate the constantly increasing variety of content and interactive services delivered to subscribers? Will the future user interface (UI) be flexible enough to add new features while providing a consistent and intuitive navigation scheme?

Bo Valsted, NDS Product Marketing Manager for Electronic Programme Guides (EPG) and User Interfaces, works to supply answers to these questions. His team defines and implements NDS’ EPG/UI product strategy with a view to supporting both current and future customers. He also leads the drive to identify and explore new EPG/UI development opportunities.

Since the mid-1990s, Valsted has managed both projects and products in the broadcast TV and new media markets, focusing on applications and the user experience. He took up his current position with NDS in mid-2008.

Challenge: More content, more features

“The pay-TV industry is facing a serious challenge in terms of the future of EPGs,” says Bo Valsted, NDS Product Marketing Manager, Electronic Programme Guides/User Interfaces. He explains that virtually all standard EPGs today are based on a grid that enables subscribers to quickly figure out what they want to watch now or record to watch later on a DVR.

“This grid is a good idea and was developed to be compatible with linear TV broadcasts,” he says. “But as we look to the future it seems that the grid won’t be sufficient for all the different types of content from which viewers will be able to choose.” This includes linear TV, recorded content, VOD, Catch-Up TV and IPTV. “What we have to do is help viewers find the content they want easily, regardless of how and when it is broadcast,” he says.

“The challenge for NDS is to figure out the best ways to present all this content in the most user-friendly manner possible,” Valsted says. “At present EPGs offer different menus or points of entry for different types of content: such as the EPG grid, the planner, and VOD.”

New kinds of guides are needed to meet new demands

The problem with multiple points of entry for content is, Valsted explains: “they are too complicated. Different types of content are attached to menus that are combined with a text search. We have to remember that we’re dealing with entertainment, and finding what you want shouldn’t be a chore.”

“Most viewers aren’t usually interested in going through text searches to find the content they want because that is so time-consuming. It doesn’t make sense to have a different search paradigm for each type of content -- linear, pre-recorded, etc.,” Valsted says. 

“We always have to keep the subscriber in mind. Most viewers mainly want to be entertained. Of course there will probably always be advanced viewers who may not mind a text search.”

The way forward

Valsted suggests that in order to let different types of viewers find different types of content, future EPGs are going to have to be more visual. “What this means is we’re going to have to stimulate the viewer’s imagination. At present when they make choices about what they want to watch, it’s not always evident what the content will look like,” he says. “That’s going to have to change.”

Valsted emphasises that “what is essential is a single entry point. The programme guide of the future should include both current EPG capabilities and new functions so that subscribers can locate, record or book any content they want.”

In order to do this Valsted and his team must address a number of serious challenges. The first question is how to present different content in an interesting way so that it intuitively fits the TV consumption scenario.

How EPGs began

Valsted explains that EPGs were first introduced to help subscribers know when and where their favourite shows will be available. “It was really fairly straightforward,” he says, “because there were no enhancements like the DVR (digital video recorder).”

What became abundantly clear was that more and more content and features were being offered. New features are essential in a competitive market where pay-TV operators have to find new ways to differentiate their platforms from their competitors. “We’ve been dealing with expanding features and content for some years now and we still have to make certain that access to these new types of content is easy and entertaining for users,” he explains.

What will the Guide look like?

“There are potential solutions for the ever-growing amounts of content that is available to pay-TV subscribers,” Valsted says. Search mechanisms like what NDS’ InfiniteTV™ project offers will deliver content to multiple devices including TVs and portable media devices.

At present viewers can only search for programmes. “In order for future EPGs to succeed they will have to be visual search engines that deliver recommendations based on the known preferences for the user of an individual set-top box,” he says. “There will be more visual presentation of the content options regardless of the source.”

There are a lot of possibilities but the fact is that the TV experience isn’t designed to include a lot of reading. “It’s a visual medium as opposed to newspapers, magazines, and even the Internet,” Valsted says.

Miniature video screens

“I think the solution has to be much more visually compelling,” Valsted says. He envisions a guide that will feature different options on miniature video screens. “We are already seeing the increasing use of thumbnails,” he says. “But once we have the video available we can start streaming parts of the content in small windows.”

“What’s most important from our point of view is how to select what should be presented in these miniature screens,” he says. “We are going to need to determine what individual viewers actually want to see.”

This suggests combining several elements starting with NDS Dynamic™, the NDS suite of advanced TV advertising solutions centred around addressable set-top boxes. “We already know some of the preferences for the users of individual boxes,” he says. “If we continuously store what subscribers like to watch, we should be able to supply them with content they are going to enjoy from the choice of what is available. To do this, there has to be a search component, otherwise operators will only be able to push what they think the viewers will want to see,” he explains.

But there is no point in offering applications that viewers may not be interested in. “We have to balance convergence with logic,” he says. “Before we start rolling out a wide variety of applications we have to understand whether subscribers want to watch this type of application and/or share it with their friends.”

“Once we get to grips with these questions we should already have answers to the other important questions like what the next generation guide – the one that replaces the EPG as we know it – will actually look like. We already know at least part of the answer,” he says. “It’s going to have to be a visual as well as an entertaining user experience.”

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