“It is vital to keep in mind that there are serious differences between the internet user and the television viewer.”
Apart from all the differences, if we’re talking about the internet television and IPTV, the importance of the television viewer should not be overlooked by any means. It is vital to keep in mind that there are serious differences between the internet user and the television viewer.
The difference between being in front of the computer and the television
From the standpoint of the computer user
To understand what these differences are, let’s picture where a computer user is located and how they use the internet. The internet user principally used to access the internet over the computer. Even though the internet and the computer are independent technologies, you had to be in front of the computer to use the internet technology, up until now.
The computer should belong to the computer users. Let’s take a look at how much time it takes to do something simple on the computer. Being in front of the computer means being in front of the keyboard, and entering data from that keyboard. To be in front of a keyboard from which data will be entered, we have to sit straight. We are also going to use a mouse, so we need some solid surface in front of us. Up until lately, this surface could not be glass. Being in a sitting position goes against the human nature. Because of this, the internet user has problems with using the internet over prolonged periods of time. If they aren’t serious internet users or addicts, the time they will spend on the internet is limited. People can’t be in a sitting position for long periods of time, and even if they do, it won’t be efficient. So the internet user is impatient. They have to make good use of their time.
From the standpoint of the television user
Let’s come to the television user. You can lie, sit, or stand in front of the television in any way you like. The remote control you use has certain standards. The buttons on it are limited, and required precautions for this number not to increase has been taken. If you bought one of the new LCD televisions lately, you’ll see that a second remote with only program, volume and on/off buttons comes with the television since the first remote has too many buttons. This is one of the most important differences between the internet user and the television user. The internet or computer user is used to have hundreds of buttons in front of them, but the television user wants as few buttons as possible. This also is the reason why motion tracking has been popular with game consoles lately.
It is quite simple to understand why the internet user is impatient and nervous. However, there are certain points where the television user grows impatient and nervous as well. The television user has a level of comfort that they grew accustomed to over time. With multiple television channels, digital platforms came into effect. Because the visuals are coming from a satellite in digital platforms, and certain information needs to be received by the set-top boxes that are placed on top of the television, and these boxes need to do many tasks at once, time intervals started to appear while changing channels. These time intervals came to affect the television user profoundly, because the television user didn’t like them much. This is the main reason why television boxes with channel change intervals higher than industry standards don’t sell well. It is important not to skip a vital point here. The television user is not happy with applications with a time interval above a certain limit in order to change channels, whether the broadcast is provided in analog, over satellite or from digital platforms. But, because of the value-added services of television broadcast from the internet, the television viewer is expected to be more patient when confronted by the internet television. The main subject here is the viewer. The important difference of IPTV in this matter is that the time interval between changing channels and resolution increase from low to high is remarkably faster. These two differences have to be taken into consideration.
The digital platform creators in Turkey claim that in IPTV applications, changing channels take time, and this situation will create a backlash from the television user. However, the IPTV viewer will be used to a service with a much more value-added services than the television viewer, and thus be
more accustomed to waiting compared to the standard television viewer. At the same time, with a good software and platform, even waiting times of 2-4 seconds won’t be required between changing channels. We will see this in a short span of time.
