The document discusses the evolution of television and the challenges of content discovery in the modern age with an overwhelming number of options. It introduces ContentWise, a software suite that utilizes recommendation algorithms and user profiling to enhance content personalization and curation. The goal is to predict user intent and preferences to streamline the viewing experience amidst the abundance of available content.

1. Complicated TV made easy, again
Personalizing video entertainment
in the age of abundance
(of content, technology and business models)
ACM RecSys Conference
Vienna 2015

2. ContentWise learns user’s taste and habits and surfaces relevant content
The ContentWise software suite blends the power of
recommendation algorithms with the convenience of
• editorial and operational tools
• assisted content curation
• business rules
• analytics
• a/b testing
• metadata enhancement

3. Complicated TV made easy, again

4. History of TV (super-simplified)
Early Broadcasting Thematic Channels
Early On-demand
DVR & Home Video
Internet Streaming
Unilateral
programming
curation
Abundance of
channels
Narrow audience
segments
“TV on my terms”
Program the DVR
Rent/buy DVDs
Overwhelming offer
Aggregation of
dispersed audiences
Long-tail effects
Hard to find relevant
content
Too many channels for
surfing
Where’s the TV Guide?

5. Content looks like a moving target
Live Airing
Restart TV Lookback EPG
Video
Recording
Catchup
(free for X days)
SVOD
Catalog
(older stuff?)
TVOD
($$$)
OTT Apps
(scattered
content)
?! Where is the
next episode?

6. GOAL
Predict the next user’s action and user’s intent

7. WHY?
Reduce TIME-TO-CHOICE
Content offering
is huge
Screens
are small
Attention span
is short
Did you say “scroll”?Did you say “search”? I’m sorry, what did you say?
(otherwise you lose the user)

8. Traditional “taste profile” has limitations
No adaptation to
user’s lifestyle
No adaptation to
context
No user’s intent
Taste
Profile
Very valuable, sophisticated; but almost static
Types
Topics
Actors
Genres
Directors
Storytelling
…

9. User’s lifestyle
Habits
Consumption patterns
User’s intent, in session

10. Let’s consider additional profiling dimensions
DEVICE TYPE
TIME
LOCATION
WEATHER?
NEWS?
HOLIDAYS?
…

11. Unified Profiling
Linear TV On-demand
Profile
Find a way to create a
unified profile from
heterogeneous interaction
schemes and data models

12. Prediction Discovery
Surfacing the next available
episode for each series the
user is already following
Surfacing Next Episodes + Suggesting New TV Series
Suggesting pilots from series
the user may like to try or
promoted series

13. Surface what’s relevant, for me, on this device, here, now

14. Danke schön!
pan@contentwise.tvYes, we’re
hiring!
www.contentwise.tv