The Dutch public broadcaster has launched two chatbots: the Missed Broadcast chatbot and the Broadcast Guide chatbot. By adding uitzendinggemistbot@omroep.nl and zoomerbot@omroep.nl respectively the media consumer can see what is on TV is or watch programs that have previously been broadcast.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In this way home entertainment coaching brands, brands that can help us enjoy ourselves in our armchairs, are finding a place in our friend list, in the buddy list of Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger). Soon we will have one chatbot, one brand agent, one synthetic worker who will organise it all for us. This will not only be active on the PC but also on the TV and your mobile. They will make clear what is on offer (also information from other broadcasters, including those from other countries and in foreign languages), they will learn our personal preferences and what we have already seen, as well as what our friends have seen or done. Eventually they will be able to present us with our perfect evenings entertainment, exactly tailored to our likes and dislikes.

In the new video game Grand Theft Auto IV players can buy MP3s of music that can be heard on the radio stations in the game.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The overflow between different media is gradually creating the virtual world. All electronic media, media with batteries or mains power, are becoming a part of the big virtual world. Now via the Playstation or Xbox, but soon we will see the world from every screen and be able to listen wherever we want. If we hear something we like in the real world we will be able to request it in the virtual world. In this way various media are merging. This is another step in that direction.

With AppleTV, a small device placed near the TV that makes a wireless connection to the internet, the user can now directly download a movie without even getting up from the couch. An interface appears which allows the user to directly select movies. Prices are $2.99 for a normal movie, $3.99 for a new movie, and a dollar extra for HD format. Take a guided tour here. (ap).

Thus home entertainment coaching brands further evolve. Now in HD format, soon in life size screens that cover whole walls. Now AppleTV only gives access to entertainment, soon we will pay a lot more for interactive content. The experience economy then will really come to life, and AppleTV can coach us in making selections out of all these possibilities.

Related trends

• Experiences

Developing home entertainment coaching brand Joost starts with live streams. Starting next week, watchers anywhere in the world can watch the NCAA basketball championships live (em, Dutch). Thus home entertainment coaching brands slowly evolve. Live or not live, this type of brands takes care of entertainment on the couch after a day of hard work. Be it passive, a little active, or very active: we don't have to leave the house any longer. Once Joost gets mass-accessibility on TV, broadcasters will have a lot to worry about.

MiraWorldTV brings all TV streams together (al). At this point in time the most important thing is to bring everything together. In other words, for home entertainment coaching brands to be: bring all games, all videos, all live-video together. Then it becomes critical to make very personal selections, start them, and bill them. On demand. Then brands really start adding value to the lives of consumers.

Panasonic from now on produces its TV's under brand name 'VIERA'. The plasma top line (the VIERA Z850), which will be on the market soon, as a default has an internet connection. YouTube and Picassa will directly be revealed (av, Dutch). And thus every screen evolves to be a window to the virtual world. Home entertainment coaching brands to be, like Joost, will take advantage of this, and serve the watcher his or her own personal entertainment every night. So the couch potato can just sit at the couch, zap from one program to the other, and be sure to see what friends, colleagues and acquaintances have seen too. This will come in 2008, and have a massive breakthrough after that. It also marks the beginning of the end of TV programming we now know at analogue as well as digital channels.

iTunes is now offerering movies, starting in the US with 1000 movies, and varies the price per movie. For an existing movie you pay $2.99, for a new movie $3.99 and for an HD movie $4.99 (em, Dutch). We slowly say goodbye to the fixed price. Soon we will pay $0.39 for a very old movie, or $28.00 for a top movie at 3x HD with interactivity. Besides we will get discounts if we buy more often: we get discounts for being loyal customers. Or we will get a free movie every now and then. With that the fixed price, the fixed P from the 5 Marketing P's, will be reduced to something we temporarily knew in the mass production and mass communication era. Step by step we say goodbye to this. And we go back to the time when the grocer recognized you, and every now and then gave you something for free. Back then it was all about relationships, and that is what it will be about in the future again.

In the United States it will soon be possible to legally download movies via iTunes, and watch them on TV through Apple iTV. The company has signed the first contract with Fox (em, Dutch)

Very soon we will be able to browse through a trailer caroussel, and directly watch the trailers. Movies we have recently seen, of course are not shown in this caroussel. Besides, this initiative will especially lead to new content, offered at differing prices. Movies might cost as much as 20 euros. But then you have something very exclusive. And after that your own iTunes will also be available at every other screen or display, wherever in the world. And once it becomes really interactive, it will really kick off. Only then TV (and advertising on TV) will really have a problem. In the future home entertainment coaching brands will completely take over the traditional role of broadcasters: programming a night of entertainment. This future is getting very close though.

Through video site Joost Coca-Cola now facilitates people to share their comments on (fragments in) video content. Users who have installed Joost already, can download a so-called joba document, which then can be activated in Joost. Then their comments appear in bubbles, with a wink to Coca-Cola (cz). By making it possible for third parties to leave their comments, Joost can quickly grow. People will send each other fun fragments, only Joost has to be installed. In the end a developing home entertainment coaching brand like Joost will facilitate these comments itself. After all, if you are positive about something, Joost will want to know, so it can give you even more surprising content on your next visit.

Google video now indexes videos of all kinds of sources, among which of course YouTube, but also video.yahoo.com, metacafe, expotv.com, myspace video’s and some Japanese video sites (dc, Dutch). Thus home entertainment coaching brands slowly develop. In 2007 it is all about category completeness: first all videos together. So we will be able to sit comfortably on the couch, and get a selection of everything that has ever been made. So we are sure not to miss anything. If we then also know what our friends watch, we are all up-to-date tomorrow in school, at the office or with our sports team. This is a small step in that direction.

Through HeySpread consumers can now upload their videos, and have them distributed over all big video sites in one click (thanks steven). Ever since people started using services from other people, since they started consuming, everything has been about convenience, about delegating to others the things they can do faster, better, or cheaper. In 2007 this means: everything you can buy brought together on one website: all cars, all jobs, or all holidays. And if you want to offer something yourself, then you do it all over the web. That is convenience in 2007. This brand anticipates that. This development illustrates the development of home entertainment coaching brands: brands which always and anywhere give us access to all content that has ever been made.

American Social Network MySpace splits off its video sharing to MySpace TV. Its structure strongly resembles YouTube (dc, Dutch). This way coaching brands get more focus. Facilitating contact, the main focus of social coaching brands, is very different from entertaining people, the main focus of home entertainment coaching brands. This split-off makes it possible for both brands to really focus on their core activities.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Many clips of video-sharing site YouTube are not watched on the YouTube site, but on other websites, like here at erwinvanlun.com. YouTube now automatically adds recommendations for other related clips to these. If you move your mouse over the clips, a carousel of clips automatically appears. YouTube this way develops itself further as a home entertainment coaching brand. Now through related clips, later through related clips within our personal interest, background and related to the moment. After that also through interactive experiences. It is like taking a friend to a boutique: you like something you see, and your friend has some more suggestions based on what you just said. Because there is always more... This is a small step in that direction.

Apple will show YouTube videos on the new Apple TV, the digital appliance that makes a wireless connection between computer and TV (am). This way a new home entertainment coaching brand could evolve: a brand that entertains you while sitting on your sofa, interactive or not, with all possible content ever made in the whole world. Completeness is important in the development of these kinds of brands. YouTube videos thus should be in there too.

Through Joox (not to be confused with big brother Joost) users can now directly see a good amount of movies (with or without subtitles), directly from the browser (mf, Dutch). With this, Joox lays the foundation to grow into a home entertainment coaching brand, a brand that entertains you while you sit on the sofa. Joox will have to work his way through some difficult processes, as at the moment the content probably is completely illegal. At least this shows us now how easy it will be in the future. In the end these types of brands will have all movies available (with or without subtitles), in all languages and at every display. This is a small step in that direction.

YouTube now also contains fragments of Uitzending Gemist (Missed Episode). It's undoubtedly an experiment because it only contains four fragments. Yet this will spread rapidly. YouTube is developing itself as a home entertainment coaching brand and like with any coaching brand it's all about completeness. Home entertainment coaching brands will soon have contact with the consumer, so also on the television, and transaction brands such as producers will look for maximum distribution. This is a step in that direction.