4oD + Facebook = Test Tube Telly
A couple of weeks ago 4oD began adding thousands of programmes from the C4’s archive onto channel4.com. This filled our hearts with joy, and your feedback – and the traffic you’re generating – suggests you’re also pretty happy with it too.
However, adding thousands of programmes to 4oD also made us realise we’d created a nice, new problem. How do you find the programmes you didn’t know you would like?
In short, how do you supply serendipity amid a vast on-demand TV archive? On linear TV, the schedule of programmes plays a big part – people often just turn on the TV to see what’s on. In on demand, it’s less obvious how you bump into nice surprises.
So we got thinking. On linear TV, people often hear about new programmes from friends or colleagues. If a friend recommends a show, we’re often motivated to check it out the next time it’s on. So we thought we’d see if we could use the same ‘friend recommendation’ thinking to help people find and watch otherwise hidden gems within 4oD.
So, we are hereby launching Test Tube Telly .
In techie terms, Test Tube Telly = 4oD + Facebook Connect. In English, it’s an experimental site that let’s you see what programmes your Facebook friends are themselves watching and discussing.
We’ve built the site very quickly and very cheaply (with help from the fine folk at Meta Broadcast, ) so please do forgive us the rough edges, of which there are many.
The programmes will also only play out if you’re UK-based. Usual story: rights restrictions. Sorry.
We’ll be iterating and adding to the site over the coming weeks (we’re toying with intergating Twitter friends, for example), but we thought we’d get it out there and see what people think. With a fair wind some of the features included in Test Tube Telly may appear elsewhere on channel4.com , but no promises.
We’ll be keeping the site live until the end of September, after which we’ll share what we’ve learned. Fear not, we’re being very careful to collect the very bare minimum if personal data we need to run the prototype. Read more about how we will treat your personal data during this trial.
Please do let us know what you think via the comments below.
Comments
July 14, 2009
Ooops! I forgot to turn comments on for this story. Should be good to go now…
July 14, 2009
I’ve been waiting for something like this since stuff like iPlayer first came on the scene. I see as kind of like a Last.fm, but for TV.
A few things that would be good additions to the site,
1. 2 XML/RSS feeds – one of shows that i’ve watched, and another for shows i’ve ‘loved’. With those feeds I can parse that info on the my website (I do this with my last.fm feed at the moment).
2. Set a minimum ’scobble’ time. On Last.fm you have to listen to around 35% of a song before it is added to your profile. This is so if you’re just flicking through your library, just playing the first few seconds of loads of different songs, your last.fm profile isn’t bombarded with entries for songs you haven’t really listened to properly.
Something like this would be good for TTT, so a TV show is only added to your profile as ‘watched’ when you get 30% into the programme.
3. More Stats! Change the ‘Top 100′ section to ‘Charts’, and add charts for different time ranges (today, last week, month, all time) and categories (comedy, drama etc).
4. Add other catch-up services (iPlayer, ITV Player, Five on Demand etc).
5. Do a kind of Apple Genius playlist, but for TV. Use the data of what shows i’ve watched to generate a playlist of shows I might like. I can then hit play and maybe discover some new shows I wouldn’t have though of watching.
One last thing (this is kind of a bug with 4OD in general) is that the video of the show itself is smaller than the flash window, so you end up with a black border around the video. Could you not scale the video to fit the flash player?
You guys have done a cracking job on TTT though, I find it easier to find shows on TTT than on the actual 4OD site!
July 14, 2009
Great feedback Nathan. Thanks for taking the time to write it all down.
I think making the charts page a bit more dynamic is definitely something that we can consider. Bear in mind, the prototype was built in around 7 weeks, by four developers, some part time. Hopefully we’ll get around to adding some new features to include in the next few months whilst the prototype is live.
The minimum scrobbling time, as you call it, is something we’re looking at right away.
WRT other sources of video content (such as iPlayer): I agree. And in fact an earlier version of TTT included it. I would have loved to launch with iPlayer content included, but sadly, and perhaps for obvious rights and distribution reasons, we had to remove it. That said, if we did want to include that content again, it’s fairly trivial, really. We’ll see how things progress and whether other content providers would want to join the party.
thanks again for the comment
July 15, 2009
Please upload some of Julian Clary’s “Sticky Moments” onto 4OD
July 17, 2009
I loved using 4OD from my desktop, it always worked a treat, unlike other website based players. But now its only available from your website I’m having terrible problems watching programmes as they keep pausing for a few seconds (if I’m lucky!!) or freezing completely. I can’t believe that it is just my broadband provider as this has only happened since the desktop version ended.
Is this likely to be just teething problems? I really hope that it improves as I’m losing patience.
July 20, 2009
Fantastic stuff. Any chance of integrating twitter updates? Or an API so I can put my feed on my blog etc?
Thanks
T
July 20, 2009
[...] A week ago Channel 4 released a little service (in beta) that makes use of Facebook Connect (the service that lets users login to external sites using their Facebook credentials) and applies it to the 4oD video content. The site is called Test Tube Telly, and you can find the full C4 intro blog post here. [...]
July 23, 2009
I’m having exactly the same problems as Hannah. The desktop version was never a problem – better than iplayer – but now I rarely actually manage to watch an entire programme. Also, what’s really annoying, is that if I lose connection or the programme freezes then it takes me right back to the start again or just leaves the last image on the screen so I have to close the whole thing down. It’s really frustrating! The old system was much easier to use and it allowed you to watch loads of old episodes – the website version only seems to allow me to watch recent shows.
July 26, 2009
We really would like to see the reinstate of the facility that allowed you to download a programme then watch it back at your leisure (within 30 days). We travel alot and finding a suitable internet speed connection to watch our favourite programmes can be difficult. Also when we can access a good connection it’s not a conducive environment to watching television.
Consequently, we rarely are able to view Channel 4.
As Channel 4 prides itself on listening and responding accordingly to viewers opinions why not increase the options of watching programmes and reinstate this service?
thanks
Mark
July 28, 2009
@mark, @emma, @alan, @hannah
I think your comments would be better placed on other posts on this blog. They refer to 4od, and this post is about testtubetelly.
thanks, andy
July 28, 2009
@terence
Twitter integration is just around the corner! watch this space.
August 10, 2009
Interesting. TankTop.tv has similar motivations. After using Tivo and series-link features on various PVRs I found if you just follow what you know you like you end up in a dead-end. TankTop.tv lets you say what you know you won’t watch (which may be more than those things you don’t like), but shows you everything else.
This works vell, but requires the users to invest time to say what they don’t like and it is difficult for people to ‘get’ until they’ve filtered out quite a lot of programmes and/or categories
We’d also like to suggest programmes based on what similar people like, but as yet we don’t have enough data to make it worthwhile.
I think the best approach would combine
1. filtering out what you don’t like and what you’ve already watched
2. saying what you really do like (and notifying you preferentially of new episodes)
3. suggesting new-to-you programmes based on what similar people watch
Programme makers may also want to be able to do targetted advertising of new programmes to people who are likely to watch them based on previous habits
Phil
September 15, 2009
Love the idea, I like reading about these new uses of social networking
October 21, 2009
[...] 13.07.2009 – Platform 4:4oD + Facebook = Test Tube Telly [...]
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