ITV Interview: Gerard Kunkel, President of GuideWorks

Gerard Kunkel is president of GuideWorks, a joint venture between MSO, Comcast, and EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, which was established in early 2004. (Note: the venture is 51% owned by Comcast and 49% owned by Gemstar, and is funded by the companies in the same ratio.) He recently spoke to [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow about the mosaic-style navigational system that GuideWorks unveiled earlier this year at the NCTA's National Show, about GuideWorks' product roadmap, about the research methodologies the company employs, about its relationship with TVWorks, Comcast's joint venture with Cox, and more.

[itvt]: GuideWorks seems to maintain a fairly low profile. Why is that?

Kunkel: We tend not to focus outwardly too much at GuideWorks because we don't have any revenue associated with this venture. It is fundamentally a development organization with a cost basis, but no revenue basis. So typically I'm not out there trying to promote any products. That's more of a Comcast mission or a Gemstar-TV Guide mission.

[itvt]: What are your responsibilities at GuideWorks?

Kunkel: I'm actually a Comcast executive, and I have two basic responsibilities. I am responsible for the user experience of the Comcast video products, and, as part of that, I am responsible for running the GuideWorks organization--which, as you know, is a joint venture between Comcast and Gemstar-TV Guide, where Comcast maintains 51% equity ownership and operating control of the venture.

[itvt]: What is GuideWorks' relationship to TVWorks?

Kunkel: TVWorks is a sister organization: it's also a joint venture, but with slightly different parentage. We share the Comcast parentage, but TVWorks is a partnership with Cox Communications. Both are software ventures, but we operate in different layers of the software stack in the set-top box. We also both have some headend components. We actually have a very symbiotic relationship, as we both venture forward into an OCAP open-standards world. The TVWorks organization focuses in on the services software library for the OCAP environment, whereas we focus in on the interactive navigator environment that sits directly above that. So we're basically in the applications layer, whereas they're much more in the services and middleware layer of an OCAP environment.

[itvt]: One project that you haven't been so quiet about is a multiscreen navigational mosaic that you showcased publicly earlier this year…

Kunkel: Yes. The mosaic, which we call Video Rich Navigation or VRN, was introduced publicly at the NCTA's National Show in April. We came up with the technology for that here at Comcast, and we requested the GuideWorks organization to implement it, when we first brought the company into existence back in April, 2004.

[itvt]: What's the current status of that mosaic? When can we expect to see it deployed?

Kunkel: It's been under development, and we've had it in tests: it's now going into field trials in a few markets, so that we can get some consumer feedback on it. You'll see it deployed sometime next year, probably in the early part of the year.

[itvt]: What else have you been working on?

Kunkel: Certainly the biggest change that has occurred in the Comcast footprint since GuideWorks was formed is the introduction of what is known internally as A22 and A23--otherwise known as iGuide. It's the newer look-and-feel of our navigation system. It's been rolling out to Comcast subscribers for the past year. The roll-out is complete: it rides on Motorola systems, but not on Scientific-Atlanta. Around 10% of our markets are either Scientific-Atlanta or another system.

[itvt]: How has consumer response been to the iGuide?

Kunkel: I do know that, when the iGuide came out, it got very good consumer response for the new features that we'd added to the service. It was also telling that our VOD usage continued to increase, even though we had put a new navigation system in front of many subscribers. So the general response has been very good, and since we're seeing high usage numbers for VOD that are continuing to increase, the assumption is that the entire consumer base at large is accessing this very readily.

[itvt]: It is still a very text-based guide, though…

Kunkel: That would be my general complaint about most interactive navigators up to this point. And, of course, one of the limiting factors that has made it difficult to do anything different than sending text down has been the architecture of current subscription-TV systems: whether those systems are cable-based, satellite-based or whatever, they've all had skinny out-of-band data delivery capabilities. However, as we go into the OCAP environment and as we install cable modem-like capabilities in set-top boxes through DOCSIS, we'll have high-bandwidth delivery--which will give us the ability to do lots more graphics in the set-top box. In addition, through creations like our VRN technology, we can also introduce many more video elements into the navigation experience.

So we are going through an evolution from a text-based paradigm to a video- and graphics-based paradigm. I think it's a critical shift that's occurring for 2005 and on. I don't see the text-based navigation tools going away, but I do see many other video-based tools coming on. We certainly view the world as one where there's a belt of tools that should be provided to the consumer to assist them in their television navigation and their media consumption. We already have a lot of text-based tools: we have a grid guide, we have a mini-grid, we have info screens, we have a flip bar, and so on. We're also bringing on what we call "ubiquitous search," which allows consumers to search across linear and on-demand content. We're bringing out VRN, which gives consumers the ability to search by visual means. And we're also going to be introducing many other forms of visual navigation over the next couple of years. I see that becoming much more the norm in the future.

[itvt]: To what extent will ubiquitous search and all the other new tools you mentioned be exploiting the existing cable MPEG-2 infrastructure, versus the high-speed data infrastructure. Do you see a shift in balance?

Kunkel: I don't see a shift in balance as much as I see a convergence of these platforms, whereby having a keyboard tethered to a device that attaches to a high-speed connection is a very good tool for executing a search, because you can type in your search string and enter it far more quickly than you could with a remote control. So I see that quickly evolving over the next few years into a preferred method for executing searches. When you complete that search and you make your selection, I still see many people sitting back at their TV set and relaxing and watching it, rather than going over to a PC screen. So really it's a matter of looking at how consumers consume their media, which methods they prefer to use to consume that media, and then creating tools that can address that on any touchpoint that Comcast has within that consumer's home or on a mobile basis.

[itvt]: When you just mentioned keyboards, you were referring to computer keyboards, correct? Not to keyboards that interface with a TV set?

Kunkel: Yes, I'm not talking about having a keyboard with your TV set, I was referring to using the keyboard on a PC with a high-speed connection to do your search somewhere else in the house or next to your TV, depending on how you're configured in your home. What I meant was that a PC with a high-speed connection is a better tool for doing an elaborate search than would be a remote control. There is an ever increasing number of computers in customer homes with Comcast high-speed connections. So again, it's really a matter of providing lots of tools to consumers and letting them choose which one they prefer.

[itvt]: Does GuideWorks conduct a lot of research on a regular basis?

Kunkel: Absolutely. We have done, and we continue to do, a tremendous amount of research. In fact, one of the great things about GuideWorks is that, when this organization was formed, I asked Brian Roberts, Steve Burke and Steve Silva if they would give me the latitude to create a consumer research facility, and I'm happy to say they did. And with that facility, we've been able to do constant research with consumers not only on the products we're developing today, but also on future concepts.

[itvt]: How is your research facility set up, and what kinds of research do you do?

Kunkel: We have a physical location in Radnor, Pennsylvania, where we can bring consumers into an apartment-like setting. It has a living room, a family room, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a den area, and throughout all of those areas we're very heavily wired. This allows us to display prototypes or existing products on multiple devices, so that the consumers can give us feedback. We get consumer feedback sometimes in a focus group, and sometimes in one-on-one interviews. We also bring in families as a family unit, so that we can better understand the dynamics of a family consuming entertainment, either as individuals or as a group. And we've found that that dynamic is very rich in information, versus bringing in just an individual.

[itvt]: What have families taught you about TV navigation and guidance?

Kunkel: When a family comes into our research center and gets comfortable, you start to see the intra-family-member dynamic coming out. There's clearly always one dominant individual who takes control of the navigation system, but there are others who want to interact, and you start to get banter back and forth. Whereas if you speak to just one consuming member of that household, you're leaving all that dynamic interactive information on the table. From talking to family units, we've also found that a lot of consumers have preconceived notions about a product. In many cases they're wrong, but of course perception becomes reality, especially when you're not sitting there communicating with the consumer.

[itvt]: Could you give us an example of these preconceived notions and of how you learned about them through intra-family-dynamics?

Kunkel: There was one consumer who said, "This is all very good. I love these services, but every time there's a lightning strike in the neighborhood and the power goes out, I lose all my settings." And of course the reality is that that doesn't happen, because that information is stored in non-volatile memory, so it doesn't get wiped out. So it was interesting to sit there and listen to the family talk, because another member of the family corrected the consumer who'd said that. This dynamic showed that if you go into a household with an installation person and the installation person trains one family member, you're not necessarily getting the training information to the entire family. So what did that teach us in terms of user interfaces? It taught us that we need to provide wizards and other help tools inside the navigation system to educate anyone and everyone in the family, and not just rely on the installer educating one person when they do the initial installation of a digital set-top box.

[itvt]: Is there a generational difference in how people respond to and use TV navigation systems?

Kunkel: Yes, we do a lot of research with children, because we certainly understand that the younger generation will have different expectations than do current subscribers. What we found is that the older generation is very comfortable with a simple, text-based navigation system--they may want the pipe to be larger in certain cases, but they're very comfortable with that kind of navigation. We found that children were very, very adept at skimming around through the menus and getting to what they wanted, but when they saw Video Rich Navigation, they were all over it--and, in fact, they wanted a lot more. One example of what we did was that we gave them the opportunity to design for us their optimal viewing experience; and what we found is that if we wanted to put up four or five video cells as a mosaic, they wanted 10, 12, 16 videos all at the same time. So the propensity to consume multiple streams of media simultaneously was very high in the younger generation, and it was not so in the older generation. As we expected, when we put up a four-screen or a six-screen mosaic, the older generation was not turned off by it, but they were not asking for more videos like the younger generation were.

[itvt]: Presumably, then, Comcast could get customers to upgrade to digital by marketing it to their children…

Kunkel: I haven't spoken to Dave Watson--who actually sits on the board of directors of GuideWorks--about his marketing strategy in this area in particular, but we have spoken about the need to be cognizant of all the consumers of this product. The challenge that I have is to make sure that the navigation experience satisfies all of the members of a household, and--by providing a tool belt full of tools--I know that I can do that. Because I'm not taking away the tree-and-branch text-based menus that the older generation is comfortable with, but I am introducing other tools that are probably more attractive to a younger generation.

[itvt]: I take it that your TV navigation systems are evolving to provide access to multiple applications, not just to programming?

Kunkel: That is absolutely part of our long-term strategy. The challenges, of course, are all the various use cases that fall out of these integrations of technology. Here's an example: if you're watching television and the navigation system is always present, we know that, if an interactive offer comes downstream from ABC, ABC will expect that, if the consumer wants to interact, that that application will take focus and allow them to interact. But then what happens if we offer the ability for an instant message to come across the wire at the same time? We have to be agile enough in our software to allow the ABC interactive experience to continue on while the instant message is still going on--and let's say a phone call comes in at the same time: now you have caller ID wanting to pop up on the screen. So you can see that we have to have a rock-solid multitasking software environment here that can handle all of these interesting use cases that are coming about. Now GuideWorks, fortunately, has been going down this path for quite some time and we do have a third-party application development environment whereby any of these possible applications could be created in the future; some of them are being worked on currently. But we do understand the challenges involved and the strategies that we need to deploy in order to maintain application focus without creating consumer confusion.

[itvt]: So is GuideWorks developing relationships with third-party application developers.

Kunkel: We have a relationship with third parties through our Professional Services Organization. If Comcast, Charter or one of the other TV Guide affiliates wanted to develop an application and wanted to use a third-party application developer, such as GoldPocket for instance, they'd send the developer to GuideWorks' Professional Services Organization in order to get the software developers' kit, information and the license for development, and we would support that third party. Right now we have more than 25 third-party developers in this area.

[itvt]: Can you talk about some of the applications they're developing?

Kunkel: Well, the one I just mentioned--GoldPocket--is a good example. They have an execution engine that allows the creation of ETV applications, and they have integrated with version 23.1 of our software, which puts them in line for future product releases. But then again, they have a relationship with Comcast, they have a relationship with other operators, and insomuch as the operators deploy iGuide, they would be able to deploy a separate code object from GoldPocket to create that kind of interactive experience.

[itvt]: Is the program free?

Kunkel: Yes, the program is free: we're not charging developers to get involved, but we also ask that developers have a relationship with one of the cable operators, because we can't afford to support everyone who comes down here. The program needs to be restricted to those developers that are pre-selected by cable operators.

[itvt]: How is GuideWorks preparing for OCAP?

Kunkel: One of the main strategies that Comcast employed in going after an OCAP solution in the marketplace--because all of us here believe OCAP is very important for the cable industry's future, for Comcast, for GuideWorks and for the CE industry--is that we did this deal where we purchased Liberate's North American assets. We created TVWorks out of those assets and also brought MetaTV into that organization. TVWorks has a services layer of software, and we work with them to develop and to put out our navigation system. So, when you take the output of the entities that make up TVWorks and combine that with GuideWorks' output, you have a very nice software package to resolve the OCAP environment. And Comcast's OCAP program is very active. I can't give you delivery dates--I don't think Comcast has publicly announced any delivery dates on OCAP--but it is very active.

So here at GuideWorks, we continue to support our native platform, our product that's out there today, and that writes directly to the firmware in Motorola set-top boxes. But we're also developing a Java-based/OCAP guide that will, in addition, work on the Scientific-Atlanta set-top boxes that Comcast--and possibly other operators--is deploying. We can do this through technology that has been acquired and that continues to be developed through the TVWorks organization. That organization has been working on a Java-based middleware solution for quite some time. So eventually, we will have one Java-based guide that's going to be able to run on TVWorks' OCAP implementation, as well as on TVNav.

[itvt]: Do you think that OCAP will enable you to improve the quality of your TV navigation systems?

Kunkel: Yes. Because TVWorks focuses on the services layer, GuideWorks can focus on the applications layer. We've created a very nice relationship between these two organizations: GuideWorks can focus on feature innovation for consumers and not worry about the plumbing that goes on underneath, and TVWorks can worry about the plumbing and create new plumbing capabilities that allow us to offer exciting new features. And so, yes, we are going to bring much more exciting products to the marketplace because of the OCAP initiative.

URL: http://www.guideworkstv.com

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