The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cable Bahamas executive yesterday said a “recommendation engine” will eventually replace its standard TV guide to give consumers more customised options on what they watch

David Burrows, Cable Bahamas’ marketing manager, speaking on a Zoom conference, said the company's REV TV segment is developing such a "crucially important" tool for further enhancing the customer experience.

He added: “That is actually one of the things that REV has been building, and I know that in the next iterations of the TV guide that we have, you will have more and more of the recommendation engine-type experience.

"This is where the content that you're looking for, the guide understands what you watch, and then comes back and says: ‘Well, you saw this, you might like that. That's monumentally important.”

A 'recommendation engine' is a solution that allows companies to offer their customers product recommendations in real-time. For example, when consumers use the online video-sharing platform, YouTube, to view one video it will suggest to them others that may be to their interest.

Mr Burrows said “over the top” content platforms such as Netflix all have recommendation engines. "They take a look at your behaviour, and then they come back and they recommend programming that they think you will watch out a of a certain degree of certainty," he added.

Rori Peters, senior vice-president for content distribution and sales strategy for the US-based cable channel, TV One, said: “Everybody's spending a lot of time trying to get on to the smart TVs for the reason that I mentioned before, which is ease of navigation for the consumer.

“If it's easy for them to find your content, then you have a higher likelihood of them actually watching your content. If they constantly have to leave the environment that they're in, then discovery becomes more difficult.”

Predicting that consumers will see more of these smart TV arrangements, where content will be bundled in front of the consumer to have their pick, Ms Peters said: “There are people out there who are fighting to get their apps on these smart TVs, coming up with lucrative partnerships so that when somebody turns on their TV, they can see all these options right in front of them and hopefully make discovery easier.”

Mr Burrows said the overriding objective for Cable Bahamas is to “inform” and “engage” its customer base. He added: “We built the entire platform based on what customers told us, or our interpretation of what the customers told us. Now we put those packages up on the website.”

Signalling that the “market is changing”, Mr Burrows said Cable Bahamas has already gone to the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) to disclose it is doing market research into customer preferences.

“We need to be in a position where we can stay in tune with that market, deliver market changes that our customers are looking for, to be sure that the cable television product falls within the ecosystem of the entertainment and information that our customers want,” he added.