We've all used, or at least heard the phrases, "It's nothing personal," or "don't take it personally." Typically, these concern business imperatives that we are not in favor of, and which we so often take as a personal affront, only to be reminded that it's "just business" so the issue shouldn't be taken personally.

Thomas G. Robinson Executive VP, CBG Communications

In today's world of multimedia communication, though, the business imperative tends to focus distinctly on the personal; in other words, everything is personal. This is due to a sea change in what can be dryly termed "content acquisition." Note that way back when, listening to the radio or watching television was much more of a social experience. For instance, some will remember gathering around the radio to listen to speeches, dramas, soap operas and other fare. In the '60s , it was often Walter Cronkite who was our family dinner companion, and Sunday evenings were spent together with Ed Sullivan.

Today, though, we've become this more individualized, highly mobile society in need of extreme portability. The content model designed for delivery to the masses largely doesn't work anymore. Big events such as the Super Bowl are a notable exception (where the requisite party tends to engender communal viewing), but other traditional social viewing experiences have dipped dramatically or dropped almost entirely off the radar screen (the Miss America Pageant is a prominent example).

What does this mean for purveyors of content through high-capacity cable and wireless communications? It means that our communications systems must be increasingly engineered for targeted delivery, over a variety of media, to a variety of content acquisition devices. This seems like a tall order, and it is. However, developing a delivery system that meets the objective really just continues to build on the old "network-of-networks" design axiom that last leapt exponentially with the development of the Internet. It also builds on triple play and quadruple play initiatives to provide interlocking services to subscribers seamlessly, at price points that they will accept.

It means developing content that takes advantage of RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary), Rich Media Content and the employment of other Content Management Systems (CMS) in order to allow us to push content to subscribers who desire it. And they can conversely, based on their profile, pull just the content that meets their needs, either on a regular or one-time basis.

Personalized content also means being mindful of screen sizes and types and how content is delivered to and viewed on different screens. This means looking at the type of content that could be easily viewed on a small screen based, for example, on the amount of motion in the program, the contrast and vividness of the picture, the effectiveness of the companion audio, and other factors. It also means being mindful of where and how such content is viewed on small screens (content recipients are often in motion and in locations where there is a lot of background noise) so that the message still gets across easily.

There must also be a focus on the changing perception of the nature of content acquisition devices. For example, just like the TV and cell phone before it, which went from being communal or shared devices to personal devices, the PC has now become a personal (one-person only) device. Simultaneous PC use by members of a household now means the use of multiple, different devices by each member of the household who is able to acquire different content in different locations throughout the house. While growth in household penetration of PCs has slowed from its rapid rate of five or 10 years ago, growth in the number of PCs per household has been quite significant.

Television viewing analysts have moved away from looking at households using television (HUT), to looking at persons using television (PUT), because, for example, four members of a household may be simultaneously watching four different programs via four different channels or by video-on-demand. Similarly, persons using multiple PCs may be accessing the same broadband connection (or potentially, with the use of competing wireless and wireline broadband services, may be accessing different broadband connections) to simultaneously acquire different content. This personalization, then, not only means being able to deliver targeted content to a higher number of end user devices, but also means expanding the total amount and type of content that can be delivered.

It's too early to tell whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for society. Analysis to date suggests that most members of society still need a lot of socialization, just not necessarily of the proximate or "face-to-face" kind. For example, college buddies may not gather in person as much as they used to in order to watch an out-of-market college basketball game at a friend's house that has a televised basketball game plan or at a sports bar where it can be pulled off of a satellite. Instead, they now IM back and forth while all of them access the same continual Weblog or Webcast of the game, even though they may be in different locations scattered across the city, nation or even the world.

It certainly will be a challenge to keep up with that demanding, increasingly personalized content from both a content delivery over the network and content development perspective. The technologies are there, though, and appear to be increasingly able to adapt to public demand. All and all then, when it comes to content delivery, you must take it personally, because that is the way everyone seems to want it.

Have a comment? Contact Tom by e-mail at: robinson@cbgcommunications.com

Contact Tom by e-mail at: robinson@cbgcommunications.com