Themes: Penny Shares, Small Caps, HbbTV, Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV
If your living room is anything like mine you probably have a TV, a DVD player, a CD player and a set-top box. Then, there’s a whole jungle of wires hidden behind the set. And, of course, a minimum of three remote controllers, all ready to be lost down the side of the sofa. It’s quite a mess, isn’t it?
- AIM-listed Turkey-focused metals exploration company, Stratex International (ticker: STI), has announced that it is expanding into Ethiopia. The company plans to explore, develop and form joint ventures to find gold and other metals.
- The expansion into Ethiopia is made possible with the acquisition of a 5.6% interest in Sheba Exploration (ticker: SHE), quoted on PLUS Markets.
- Stratex is up 12% on the news and has doubled in value since the start of the year. Sheba has leapt 32% today following the acquisition by Stratex.
This is the result of a number of different services being developed over time by different organisations. And since they have all, by and large, been in competition with each other it has quite suited them to develop their own technologies and operating standards. So we have a mish-mash of services, and a jumble of different devices including perhaps both an old-fashioned TV aerial and a satellite dish.
People in the business talk about ‘convergence’ and a ‘bundling of services’. But for the average consumer, reality does not seem to match the talk. To add to the complications, most of us now have a broadband connection and we know that this allows us to watch old television programmes on the computer.
Suck your favourite programme out of the telly and watch it on the go
Where is this all leading? To get an idea, last week I headed off to the Cambridge Business Park to meet Simon Woodward, the chief executive of ANT Software (ticker: ANTP). This AIM-quoted business supplies software that is embedded in TVs or set-top boxes and allows us to manage our viewing with the remote control via a series of on-screen menus and options.
ANT has achieved a dominant share of the internet protocol TV (IPTV) market, where television is delivered via broadband. Woodward told me ANT’s software platform ‘is, for television, what Windows is for the PC.’
But rather than go into the details of that I wanted to know where the TV industry is heading. What will non-geeks like me be able to do in five years time that we cannot do today? First of all, Woodward explained, we will be able to transfer photos, films and music videos from our PC and see them on the TV screen. That did not sound too exciting but the next thing did.
Without having to fiddle about with wires, we will be able to ‘suck’ programmes out of the telly and onto some portable device. We can do this while we are having breakfast and then watch them on the way to work. I like the sound of that.
Woodward told me that in future we will be able to choose and watch television programmes without being aware of where they are coming from. These could be delivered into our home through the terrestrial network, through cable, through satellite or broadband.
At present we are all too aware of the source because for each one we need a different remote controller. It would make life much easier if we had just one, but for that to happen there needs to be agreement about common standards.
The harmonisation of entertainment
Next Woodward explained that once we start to receive TV via broadband, the broadcasters will find it much easier to track our viewing habits. So if, for instance, we watch Match of the Day but then switch channels just as soon as Gary Lineker comes on, the broadcasters will understand that he is not as popular as they seem to think he is.
Finally Woodward said that once broadcasters know our viewing behaviour, two other things will follow. First of all the programme menu that the viewer sees on his screen will be tailored for him. The channels that he is most likely to be interested in will be shown more prominently. Next, advertisements will be pitched according to his viewing patterns. So if he spends his time watching Top Gear he will receive plenty of new car promotions.
This may be the end-game, but the question is when will we get there? If we are to be able to choose between channels without worrying about where they are coming from or how they are arriving on our screen; and if we are to be able to manage our viewing with the aid of just a single remote controller, then the broadcasting industry needs to agree on common standards.
Slowly this seems to be happening. Only last week several European television industry leaders announced their intention to harmonise the delivery of entertainment to TV viewers. They’re calling it HbbTV, or Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV. Woodward believes that moves like this could boost demand for ANT’s services. I will be keeping an eye on this.
In the meantime, what really concerns me is that mess in my living-room…
Good investing,
Tom Bulford
For The Penny Sleuth
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