New streaming video on-demand (SVOD) content platforms like Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick are taking an ever-larger slice of the television market. More consumers, particularly millennials, are moving away from high-cost pay-TV bills and investing in new devices and applications.
Innovative products in this space are beginning to allow over-the-air (OTA) terrestrial broadcast TV to increase its usability within the SVOD context, however, and further propel the cord-cutting trend. Given its high-quality, HDTV programming — much of it live and/or local (which SVOD content is decidedly not) — its variety of offerings and its price (free is hard to beat), OTA TV is well positioned to deliver top-tier cord-cutting content. Recent developments are integrating OTA content into SVOD platforms in new ways, putting them at parity with over-the-top (OTT) internet-delivered TV content.
An example of what a future user interface to broadcast TV might look like is presented by the new Channels app for the Apple TV platform, which is reviewed below.
Channels
The Channels App on Apple TV provides a user-friendly interface for OTA broadcast.
One of the most talked about SVOD platforms in recent months is the latest Apple TV. Unlike previous generations, the new model has been opened to developers, allowing for third-party apps on the platform for the first time.
One such app is Channels, which provides an attractive and intuitive interface for TV viewing, including OTA TV. It allows the user to integrate OTA channels received via an external DTV (ATSC 1.0) tuner into the otherwise SVOD-only Apple TV platform — without switching inputs — via the simple hookup shown below.
Set Up
The user supplies an OTA antenna and a DTV tuner with an IP output, such as the HD HomeRun Connect tuner from Silicon Dust. Once the tuner is connected to the home network, users can stream OTA TV content to other devices in the house. The HD HomeRun Connect has two tuners, but more advanced models include more tuners, as well as the ability to stream HD broadcasts to tablets and other devices.
After downloading the Channels app and hooking up the antenna and tuner, the user scans for OTA channels via the Channels app, and live HD broadcasts are quickly available to watch on TVs or other devices connected to the home network. Switching between SVOD content and OTA channels is all done within the app, with no input switching or additional remote control required. The channel-scan function could be better, as well as the initial antenna setup, but with a little fiddling, it all works.
Usability
After getting past the initial setup, the Channels app experience is quite elegant. It includes a strong range of features including the following:
- Electronic program guide (EPG)
- Live TV pause/rewind
- Closed captioning/language options
- Visual channel guide
The strongest value of this app to OTA broadcasters is the streamlining of OTA and SVOD content into a single device. Many users have several different boxes connected to their TV, and most TV watching begins with a frantic search for the proper remote control and switching to the desired TV input. With the Channels app, users have instant access to their favorite broadcast content and other Apple TV content or apps through a single device.
There is some room for improvement. Apart from the setup issues noted above, the OTA EPG only provides info on the current and next programs on the channel. It also lacks DVR functionality, which makes sense in a purely SVOD world (where there is no need for local recording), but for live OTA content a DVR remains quite useful.
Channels is good looking, reliable, easy to use and brings OTA broadcasts to users who may otherwise not have it. It has quickly become a popular app on the Apple TV platform.
Conclusion
OTA broadcast television was once the only way to see the shows viewers loved. The television environment has radically changed since then, but innovative products and services are keeping broadcast at the forefront of content delivery. The Channels app may provide a glimpse of how broadcast TV is consumed in the future.