It was inescapable at INTX. From a standing-room only session to attendees gleefully flailing about in booth after booth across the floor, virtual reality was a star of the show. But what cable really wants to know is whether it can live up to the hype and be the next big opportunity.

IBB Consulting recently published an in-depth report on the VR opportunity, featuring insights collected from more than 1,000 people who said they’re interested in VR (representing 17% of online U.S. consumers). IBB’s analysis points to an early advantage for cable operators that can capitalize on existing assets to assemble an end-to-end play supported by thoughtful content offerings.

Only about one-third of respondents who said they’re interested in virtual reality have actually tried it. This represents an opportunity for cable companies to show customers the value of VR through demos and convert more from the “not interested” camp — especially with more than three-quarters of these consumers willing to pay for a VR head-mounted display (HMD) and more than one-quarter of respondents saying they plan to access VR content via their pay TV provider.

With regard to content, gaming has gotten most of the attention thus far, but IBB found that movies and TV actually have the broadest appeal. In fact, about 50% of respondents in all age groups older than 18 said they’d like to watch this type of content in VR. While men express the most interest in categories like live events, user-generated content and gaming, women are 35% more interested than men in travel-themed experiences.

The VR market has seen entrants from startups to tech titans, but only piecemeal services exist today. Consumers have to research their options, find a place to buy an HMD and seek out content on different platforms. Post-purchase support requires jumping back through those same hoops in a fragmented value chain.

From our research, the most popular consumer VR use cases aligned well with cable’s core strengths of driving value to the high-speed data network, reigniting video product innovation and enabling communication services.

Cable can accelerate this market entry by leveraging end-to-end capabilities that break down barriers to VR adoption. After all, VR is another form of video for now, and cable knows how to package and sell video. It already has a billing relationship with customers, programming relationships, sales and service capabilities — essentially the key customer- experience components that others will be scrambling to piece together.

As MSOs invest in physical experience stores, they have a prime opportunity to leverage these existing assets to convert more VR awareness into interest. Creating thoughtful demos that let customers physically experience content that interests them on a range of VR HMDs with the ability to ask questions of knowledgeable salespeople may create an early advantage.

Yes, the market is becoming crowded. But today, it is disjointed. If cable makes a play now, it will be well positioned when the competition pieces together the partnerships needed to match this early advantage.

VR is here. Now, how fast will cable move to make this opportunity a reality?

Hollywood studios have made noise with virtual reality content, theme parks have put VR headsets on roller coaster riders, CNN live-streamed a presidential debate in VR, and even retailers are getting on board with virtual reality to help sell everything from chairs to appliances.

But Philip Lelyveld, virtual and augmented reality initiative program lead for the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, could only chuckle during a presentation here when he shared survey results that showed what consumers want most with their VR.

An Ericsson Consumer Labs survey from late last year found that using VR for retail (64%), VR smartphone apps (62%) and movie experiences (57%) were the top three interests among smartphone users. No. 4 on the list? All-angle tech support.

The results just go to show that the young consumer VR industry is still feeling its way around when it comes to what works with VR and what appeals to the average customer.

“The modern era of virtual reality is less than three years old,” Lelyveld noted. “It’s a new art form; it’s a new storytelling tool.”

But according to Michael Davies, senior vice president of field and technical operations for Fox Sports Media Group, sports broadcasters especially are still in a trial and error period with virtual reality.

“We’re still learning about virtual reality,” he said. “There are things you think are quite captivating but turn out [disappointing].” Something like boxing in virtual reality holds great promise, because it’s extremely close and intimate. A huge soccer field is a different story altogether. “Things that look far away [normally] look very far away in VR,” Davies said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

NEXT TV BRIEFS

TV Everywhere Isn’t Going Anywhere

John Bishop, chief technology officer for Akamai Technologies’ media business, looks at how people are ingesting content, and sees a sea change happening. And a big part of that is TV everywhere.

Giving consumers the option to access their pay TV content anywhere, on any device, at any time, has become an expectation, not just a nice thing to have, Bishop and other panelists agreed here on the “TV Everywhere: The Multiscreen Challenge” panel.

And this relatively new way of ingesting content isn’t without its drawbacks.

“I think the Olympics [this summer in Rio de Janiero] is going to be a massive event for [TV everywhere],” Bishop said. “I think a lot of people are going to be really unproductive at work. People are going to be watching Usain Bolt running at work at 3:30 ET.”

Barry Tishgart, vice president of Comcast Wholesale, added that TV Everywhere companies need to approach each global region differently. Unlike in the U.S., where at-home pay TV is prevalent, some countries are digital-only and mobile-first. “In some parts of the world, multiscreen viewing surpasses set-top viewing,” he said.

Google’s DoubleClick Clicks With Cablevision, Roku

Daniel Alegre, president of global partnerships at Google, last week announced the launch of DoubleClick Dynamic Ad Insertion, with initial distribution deals with Cablevision Systems and Roku.

The news, which came during a wide-ranging keynote session here, is a step toward further injecting Google into the traditional TV ecosystem.

The Dynamic Ad Insertion tool “makes ads hyper-relevant for viewers across any screen they watch by creating individual viewer streams,” Alegre said.

Alegre was joined onstage by Cablevision chief operating officer Kristin Dolan, who described the MVPD’s bid to become a “connections company” instead of a cable company. The embrace of the DoubleClick setup, she said, fits in with the overall innovation push at Cablevision, which just rolled out Hulu via the set-top box. “How do we allow people to not only experience when they want but also take advantage of the subscriptions they have to other things?”

She added, though, that 91% of viewing on Cablevision still happens live. “It shows that a lot of people still want to watch things as they happen, which should be good news for all the broadcasters in the room.”

— Dade Hayes, B&C