Connected Televisions: Convergence and Emerging Business Models

Connected televisions are defined for the purposes of this report as devices that have the capability to interact with the Internet to display audio-visual content. Connected television is an important development because it permits the provision of certain new and valuable services to end-users. These services will also have implications for the activities of all of the players in the content distribution ecosystem. In addition to identifying the new services that connected television enables, the report analyses in some detail their effects on networks (i.e. the physical communication links that carry content to end-users). The impact on content producers themselves, on content distributors (such as traditional pay television companies), on hardware vendors, and on providers of support services such as advertising and programme guides is considered much more briefly. More detailed examination of these matters could be the subject of future work. The report also includes a discussion of policy implications raised by connected televisions for the actual connected television devices and for network infrastructure.