Some programmers want to come up with products that put the “active’’ into interactive TV. Michael-Andreas Kuttner prefers to let the viewer embrace his inner couch potato.
Having spent 15 years in TV production, Kuttner has now formed Halifax-based Neato Entertainment, a young company whose CommercialBreak product automatically allows a smart TV viewer to see web-based content instead of commercials. Once completed, the software will download to a smartphone, which instantly becomes the remote control for the television. The smartphone can automatically detect when commercials interrupt the show that’s being watched and minimize the TV broadcast to a small window in the corner of the TV screen. The screen instead will show predetermined internet content – sports scores, stock market updates, YouTube, whatever the viewer wants.
Kuttner is timing his company to take advantage of what could be “the next big thing” - smart TV, which is loosely defined as internet features integrated into a television set. Smart TV will allow greater choice and interactivity, and certainly the potential for games and interactive features has captivated the imagination of some programmers. But Kuttner likes to remember that watching TV is essentially a passive activity.
“My take on it is not, `How can we allow people to do more?’ but `How can we allow them to do less, yet have a better experience?’” he said in an interview.
Users can download the software free on to their phones, and Kuttner plans to monetize the product by having a banner ad on the screen when CommercialBreak kicks in. About 100 users in the U.S. have viewed a demo, and 80 percent said they considered the banner ad a fair tradeoff for not having to endure TV commercials.
He admits broadcasters “are probably going to hate me” because the product disrupts the ad-revenue model, but the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission has said it has no objections to it.
Kuttner has a prototype that he will demo at DemoCamp Halifax on Sept. 23. He plans to develop a prototype for use on Google TV and Android-based smartphones in October and release the product in mid-2013. After funding the project on his own with some Irap money, he has been talking to possible funders and aims to raise about $300,000 in the next year.
Kuttner has already won a number of awards including a Gemini award in animation, the BDC Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and Canada's Top 40 Under 40 award.