CustomTV: Integrating television and the web using a channel model

James Rowson, Rich Gossweiler, Kurt MacDonald
With more and more channels on TV, the integration of internet content and better tools to create and distribute video, the television industry (and entertainment in general) is undergoing disruptive changes. At HP Labs we began developing CustomTV -- a system that integrates broadband and internet content, supports DVR capabilities (pause, time-shifting, easy recording), but uses a channel-model to navigate the content. That means, instead of the network deciding what is on a channel, you do. You create custom channels that can be aligned with particular content (e.g. news) or style (morning shows versus evening shows). This work was featured by our HP CEO at both the CES and the NAB conferences.