Reading an analysis in the Wall Street Journal by Joseph Walker, one word represented the great virtue Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson must bring to his new job: focus.
From chat to news to email, Yahoo lists some 70 different services on its product page, and that doesn't include the recently launched Livestand, an iPad app that collates various media content into a magazine-like display. The app is very similar to start-up Flipboard's popular iPad app, says one Yahoo employee, and is an example of how the company spends too much time playing catch-up.
A company Yahoo's size spends a lot of time sending out lines to see what is going bite. That's not all that different from Google, it's just that Google commands the central part of the pond: search. But Yahoo does have a big boat in one area, connected TV, which is becoming increasingly coveted. And it appears the company is ready to go deep.
Apple and Google suck up a lot of press about their previous attempts and plans for the space. MySpace announced their dreams for your connected TV the other day. Meanwhile Yahoo has been quietly amassing a basketful of credentials for being a leader in the field. More than 8 million Yahoo-connected boxes are in the market today, with a million-plus people engaging Yahoo's roughly 180 TV apps monthly. And the company owns one of the coolest second screen apps in the business -- IntoNow, which connects you to a social conversation around TV shows by sound-scanning, ala Shazam, with your phone or iPad.
If Yahoo Connected TV were a startup, it would be a mighty impressive one. And yesterday at CES, Yahoo cast out even more:
The Broadcast Interactivity feature is now available on 2011 Sony BRAVIA TVs and launching soon on 2012 TVs to engage people with show trivia, polls, game show play, interact with advertisements, and more.
New apps are available from brands like ABC, AT&T Yellow Pages, Disney, ESPN, iHeart Radio by Clear Channel and The Wall Street Journal.
Yahoo! Connected TV mobile apps will start rolling out for iPad, iPhone and Android devices in the first quarter of 2012. Features will include the ability to launch and interact with TV apps from the phone or tablet, TV video playback, and text entry capabilities for posting updates and comments or making purchases.
IntoNow’s sensor technology will power the backend of Yahoo!’s CTV experience, working with any video stream (cable, satellite, DVR-recorded shows, or Internet video) to deliver the most immediately relevant Internet content and advertising.
Of course, as I've written before, the central problem for any tech company in the connected TV business has nothing to do with apps and algorithms. It's all about media rights. Yahoo's primary CTV strategy has been to augment content. The big winners are going to deliver it.
And this is where Thompson should dig in. By putting CTV in clear focus, Thompson could gather the forces of his new company, along with his proven ability to move money across the web, to create an enticing media rights package for studios and networks. Many other Yahoo assets would fall in line -- search and messaging obviously, but also a deep well of news, information and millions of people who use Yahoo. And all of Yahoo's CTV augmentations would be ready to serve a new kind of smart TV experience.
It's one space, at least, he would have few worries about catching up. And that's reason enough to put connected TV in focus.
