Widgets May Lure Subscribers to Switch Video Providers
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, May 3, 2010 · 
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Widgets or interactive applications available via your TV screen are becoming increasingly more important in the battle for subscribers. A new survey reports that almost 45% of pay-TV subs said they would be “likely to consider” switching their cable, satellite or telco service if a competitor offered interactive applications or widgets with their favorite programs. That’s up from 25% who reported the same inclination in a survey in late 2007.
In addition, the study found that 17% of television subscribers would definitely or probably switch service providers to get interactive features.
The 2010 survey polled more than 2,000 U.S. adults in March 2010. Both survey were conducted by Harris Interactive, and commissioned by interactive TV developer Ensequence.
Verizon is on top of this growing trend. The telco provider will be the first to offer YouTube and Internet radio to its Fios TV subscribers, enabling live streaming on the TV screen.
Both services are accessible via FiOS TV’s Media Manager, which allows users to search and view on their TV sets user-generated content from such video websites as blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh.
The expansion of Verizon’s Internet content-on-TV services comes after last summer’s successful launch of Facebook on FiOS TV. Verizon reports that its customers have viewed 15 million Facebook photos on their TV screens since the launch of the application.
“Adding YouTube and Internet radio to FiOS TV further expands our customers’ digital home-entertainment world by giving them access to an unprecedented amount of online content on the biggest screen in their home — their TV,” said Shawn Strickland, vp of consumer strategy for Verizon. “Their TV and Internet worlds seamlessly come together to create experiences cable can’t deliver.”
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