Switching service providers is a hassle. First you have to commit a weekend to watching the backlog of dreadful DVR content that you could not yet bring yourself to watch in six months but cannot forego watching now that your DVR must be returned. Then there is the phone call to your current SP breaking their heart while ignoring their pleas to stay. This is followed by the truck roll and hours long deployment that make you wonder why you did this, and finally the inevitable need to return your old equipment. Good times.
Recently I bit the bullet and switched to FiOS. I was interested in the service ever since seeing their approach to the program guide (dubbed the electronic media guide), their increase of HD offerings (on par with competitors), and the IP connection enabling advanced uses today and others I hope for down the road. And the service has only been out a few years.
Since signing up I have been hard at work to determine what I like best about the service thus far (as well as some of the disappointments which will follow in another blog post next week). Yes, I have finally found how to make watching TV part of my job.
1. Global Search. This is an excellent tool. No longer do I have to search through my DVR, VOD, or guide to find when Law and Order will be on (it turns out it is on every hour of every day on TNT). I simply conduct a search and the results are from all sources. Think how powerful this will be in the future when I sign up for Home Media Manager and have content on PCs which will also appear in the search. Or web video as they are now testing. Global search is much more fascinating than I initially expected it would be.
2. VOD. While the VOD presentation isn’t perfect (I haven’t yet been able to figure out if I can just sort by channel instead of History and World or Pop Culture) it is better than what I have experienced in the past. The side by side navigation in lieu of drilling into menus makes navigating smoother and I find it a bit more intuitive.
3. Home Media Manager. I don’t have this service yet - mostly because you cannot stream HD from the initial STB to another HD-DVR but when they day comes I can shutter my second HD-DVR and my Apple TV I will be a happy man. I think this will be my favorite feature one year from now. As I (and others in my household) amass more content both personally created and profesionally purchased accessing all my content through one interface and via one device will provide tremendous value. Plus being able to watch content recorded one place in another place is a fascinating use case - especially if/when you can move that second location to somewhere beyond the home.
Ultimately, Verizon (and AT&T) has positioned itself for success because FiOS does not exist independent of the home network. Instead the devices and service are a part of the network and as such can bring together otherwise disparate elements. This is evident from Verizon’s decision to support MoCa and its Media Manager product. While we are still at the beginning of this transition of pay TV as a channel to only proprietary content into a channel for all content (including propreiatry broadcast content) companies that understand the need to interface with other devices will be well positioned. As I have written and continue to write in my research - it’s all about the network now. The device is becoming secondary.
Today, these advanced services appeal to techie folks like myself but eventually when it becomes even more simple (and perhaps social networking is factored in - such as automatically providing access to photos of your grandkids that your child who also subscribes to FiOS uploaded via home media manager to your STB) the desire for such services will spread. Those that can enable these services quickly will be well positioned while others will be more challenged to change course. Enough writing - back to my research… watching TV.