EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—DirecTV has unveiled a substantial upgrade to its user experience for all DirecTV satellite customers who use a Genie or Gemini device. 

The update includes a redesigned menu at launch and an upgrade from the “Sports Central” that was introduced in 2023 for satellite customers.

The menu revamp is the first for eligible DirecTV satellite customers in more than five years and will offer a user interface more closely aligned to the experience rolled out earlier this year to users who stream DirecTV with a DirecTV device, the pay TV operator said. 

Included in the new menu are the following prominent content carousels: Live TV, Continue Watching, Discover, and Live Sports, which provides users a seasonal sports carousel, including football, baseball, basketball, soccer, and more.

The upgraded interface will combine a user’s selected favorites with their most watched content to put their most relevant live programming front and center on the menu. Further elevating DirecTV’s super aggregation capabilities, later this year the user interface will include personalized content curated to users’ preferred programming, DirecTV reported.  

As part of the upgrade, “Sports Central” will provide fans easy on-screen access to their favorite games, stats, and scores, including easily finding and accessing content only available on select third-party apps. 

The phased rollout will begin today, starting with on-screen notifications with a small group of customers in Denver, Colorado. The upgrades will be available to all eligible customers in the Denver market and will expand nationwide later this year.

To learn more about DirecTV and additional updates, visit www.directv.com. 

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku has announced a number of improvements to its streaming platform that will provide new ways to personalize and elevate the viewing experience. 

The improvements, which will roll out over the next few months, include the introduction of Backdrops, Roku Smart Picture, and updates to the browse, discovery, and the mobile app features on all U.S. devices. 

“We want our platform to be relevant to how you watch TV, whether you purchased a device today or years ago,” said Preston Smalley, vice president of viewer product at Roku. “With personalized Backdrops to suit your mood, Smart Picture for crystal-clear visuals, and better ways to help decide what to watch, we’re setting a new standard for streaming excellence. This is the future of TV, tailored just for you by Roku.”

Citing research showing that 86% of TV buyers want a TV that fits in seamlessly with their decor, Roku has launched a new feature called Backdrops instantly transforms your TV into a work of art and makes it the centerpiece of the house. Users can change the screen by simply browsing through a wide catalog of free delightful artwork, including famous classics, museum collections, abstract designs, and more, and choose the art to match their tastes and decor. Users can also select their favorite artwork or easily upload digital art or family photos to curate their very own collection to display.

As part of an effort to provide the best picture quality, Roku is also rolling out Roku Smart Picture. 

A Harris Poll survey commissioned by Roku** shows that about 91% of smart TV viewers don’t adjust picture settings often as they watch different types of content, such as sports or movies. Yet 70% of smart TV buyers say picture quality is a key feature when purchasing a TV. 

Roku Smart Picture is designed to make it much easier to get the best picture quality for a Roku TV device without having to change the settings. As apps stream, Roku Smart Picture adjusts the backlighting, uniformity, and colors based on the type of TV. Additionally, Roku Smart Picture automatically optimizes the brightness and colors and selects the best picture mode—i.e., sports, movies, vivid, and standard—for the content you’re watching, offering a better TV viewing experience.

Roku is also making improvements to its Roku City digital downtown screen by adding TV and movie cars to the streets of Roku City. 

The streaming platform also announced improvements to the browse and discovery features that include: 

• IMDb ratings: In the coming weeks, you can expect to see IMDb ratings across entertainment details pages, keeping you in the know on what peers have rated TV shows and movies before you dive in. Plus, we’re also populating a new row within What to Watch that will feature highly rated IMDb titles, so users can tune in with ease.
• Trailers: With trailers coming to entertainment details pages across the platform, you can seamlessly preview TV shows or movies, allowing you to feel confident in your selection.
• Save List Updates: We’ve made your Save List even smarter. Now, when a TV show or movie on your Save List drops in price or when new seasons or episodes are available, we'll let you know with badge updates right on the entertainment tile, bringing titles that may have been at the end of your list right to the front.

Improvements to the Roku Mobile App include: 

• New navigation bar: Users will now be able to browse between five universal tabs: Home, Search, Remote, Devices, and Account.
• Top Searched TV and Movies: With the all-new “Top Searched TV and Movies” row, you can scroll through what’s popular with other streamers and tune in. The row will be populated with daily searched TV shows and movies from across the platform.
• Search updates: With a full keyboard, searching has never been easier, and now the results will be more visually immersive while you search or browse through new categories, actors, and other topics.

All software updates will be available to Roku users in the coming months. Roku Smart Picture is coming to all Roku TV models. Any Roku-branded TV purchased in the spring of 2024 and onward will come with Roku Smart Picture as the default, and those purchased before that date will need to enable it (in picture settings).

In addition, OS 13 will roll out to all supported devices in the U.S. in the coming months, Roku said. 

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku, Inc. has announced plans to add two new destinations on the Roku Home Screen: the All Things Food and All Things Home destinations. 

The destinations will roll out to users in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

The two hubs are designed to bring together the best food, home, and lifestyle content from across the platform into powerful and cohesive discovery experiences, the company said.

The All Things Food and All Things Home destinations will feature hundreds of streaming options within each category, both free and from subscriptions services, including live and linear TV, Premium Subscriptions, Roku Originals, and more.

In launching the destinations, the company highlighted a recent survey commissioned by Roku. The survey found that 64% of streamers said that if they were searching for something new to watch, they would base a search on genre, and nearly 3 in 4 streamers (73%) feel they are spending too much time trying to find new content to watch.

“The foodies in my life devour the whole genre—one night, it’s Roku’s ‘Great American Baking Show,’ the next, all things Gordon Ramsay, ‘Chopped,’ and so much more. Similarly, the home and garden lovers never stop at one source for tips and inspiration,” said Charlie Collier, president, Roku Media. “Now all passionate food and home lovers can get everything they need with All Things Food and All Things Home, all in one place: Roku. We reach nearly half of the broadband households in the U.S., with hundreds of options across every popular TV brand, in the genres viewers love. So pull up your favorite designer’s chair, grab your favorite bite, and let Roku be your host to All Things you love.”

All Things Food is a collection of the best culinary content on Roku, in a single, easily discoverable, and craveable destination. Users can browse and engage with a menu of shows in new featured rows including “DIY Meals,” “Healthy Habits,” and more. All Things Home is a one-stop shop for all home and garden content on Roku. Within this experience, users can explore everything from home décor to two-by-fours in curated rows, featuring recommended content such as “Home & Garden Hits,” “Home Improvement,” “Call in the Home Experts,” and more, the streaming platform said. 

The new hubs expand on previously announced destinations on the Roku platform, including live TV, sports, and more. To locate and use the new All Things Food and All Things Home destinations on the platform, users can scroll down to the all-new “Browse” row on the Home Screen or access through Roku Search. The “Browse” row also features categories such as TV shows, movies, and sports, among others. Streamers can also access these destinations from a variety of touchpoints, such as banner ads on the Roku Home Screen, a branded Spotlight Ad, or when searching for related content.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.—LG Electronics has introduced LG Channels 3.0, the latest version of its exclusive, free streaming service. Featuring a new UI with improved navigation, more engaging placements for content discovery, and an enhanced channel guide, the upgrade will make it easier for users to discover the content that resonates with them, the company said. 

LG Channels 3.0 is rolling out in South Korea this month and will arrive in other markets, including the US, starting in October.

Reflecting the main content consumption patterns of LG Channels' users, LG said that the new UI is organized into three pages – Home, Live and On Demand– that makes it easier to take advantage of the different services offered on LG's free content platform.

The Home page features a large, highly visible rotating carousel at the top of the screen to provide easy access to featured channels, curated collections and premium On Demand content. 

From the Live page, they can now play live broadcast channels directly from within the LG Channels app. Additionally, the new channel guide covers only half of the screen, allowing users to see what's on and choose what to watch next while continuing to watch their current viewing choice, LG said. 

The On Demand tab allows users to select their favorite types of content including movies, TV shows and receive recommendations from the Popular Now category ensuring a smooth binge-watching experience.

AMSTERDAM—Facility management software developer Xytech is set to demonstrate a number of updates to its MediaPulse product line at its stand during IBC 2019, which takes place from Sept. 13-17 in Amsterdam.

Front and center as part of the MediaPulse update is a completely redesigned user interface. Xytech designed the new user interface to be intuitive and operational on any device, including an integrated mobile experience for low-touch users on phones. Users can access the new interface either on premises or in the cloud.

The new user interface is now available with the latest version of MediaPulse.

Xytech also updated its Personnel Manager to add real-time counters in the scheduling view so it can track entitlements, work time, available time, overtime or any other classification managed by MediaPulse. The Personnel Manager’s rules engine has also been updated to track all user-defined conditions, alert staff when thresholds are exceeded, compute costs and prepare timesheets.

Additional upgrades have been made to the Transmission Module, including new functionality to manage technical compatibility and service compatibility. Users can automatically create a technically correct circuit while simultaneously ensuring selected devices perform the service required.

Xytech will feature these updates at its stand, 6.C22, during IBC 2019.

Much like the rest of the pay-TV industry, user interfaces are in a state of flux.

After Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed that the "future of TV is apps", the industry initially followed suit by making many interfaces (UIs) app-based. But with so many UIs now resembling smartphones, users are finding it increasingly difficult to navigate the converged TV landscape. Wading through multiple services and content sources on one UI can be confusing and even frustrating.

An alternative to the app-based UI is the more traditional electronic programming guide (EPG) format–an interface familiar to many who still consume content in a linear fashion. But for pay-TV providers looking to develop a UI that creates a happy medium and satisfies every user that might pick up the TV remote, there are two elements they need to consider.

First of all, UIs need to create effortless, stress-free consumption.

Consider this: The average user is confronted with myriad services when they switch on – from Netflix and linear broadcasting to VoD services and YouTube. All of this combines to create a labyrinth of menus across multiple apps and services. Users need to be able to switch between these services effortlessly with a simple, uncluttered and engaging interface that doesn't overwhelm them with options. At the same time, UIs also need to create a bridge between content silos – searching for one particular piece of content shouldn't entail accessing multiple apps.

For the occasions when users don't want to search for themselves, the service needs to be personalized with recommendations based on previous content they enjoyed, along with any other data the provider can use intelligently. This is key to removing stress from the user experience. How many times have you turned on your VoD service, only to be confronted by so many options that you're unable to decide on what you want to watch at all?

And as the range of services on offer continues to grow, UIs should also take heed of emerging design trends – specifically, an emphasis on decluttering and stripping the interface back to its key functionalities (i.e. taking advice from mobile-first design). By ensuring an interface is clear, accessible and simple to navigate, providers can help users enjoy a stress-free service that doesn't overwhelm.

Secondly, UIs need to be adaptable to new forms of content and emerging technologies.

Users are constantly switching services and engaging with new content. Pay-TV providers cannot assume the landscape will remain unchanged and subsequently build a UI that accommodates only today's popular services and apps. The tech landscape is littered with long-forgotten apps and content services, from Blockbuster on Demand to Myspace.

Similarly, UIs should take social media into account. Facebook gets eight billion video views a day and Snapchat gets 10 billion, while the vast majority of Twitter users "love to engage" with video content. It's increasingly clear just how much of a significant video content delivery channel social platforms are. And although some have predicted that Facebook Live will actually compete with and even overtake TV, there is no reason to assume the two cannot, in fact, converge – so long as the user experience is seamless enough to encourage people to use Facebook on their TV, of course.

But it's not just a matter of the content that will be available in the future. UIs must also adapt to new technologies as they continue to emerge. For now, the UI landscape is relatively straightforward – that is, the vast majority are technically graphical user interfaces (GUIs). But beyond that, we face the rising ubiquity and popularity of voice user interfaces (VUIs) – as evidenced by Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa. Also rising in popularity is virtual reality (VR). How long until these become commonplace interfaces that consumers come to expect from all of their everyday products?

Whatever the future holds for linear broadcasting, VoD services and even social media, providers must ultimately be prepared to expect the unexpected. And while there is no user interface that works for everybody who will ever pick up a remote, give a command to their VUI, or switch on their VR headset, there are two maxims providers should always keep in mind: adaptability and stress-free consumption.

UIs need to incorporate new technologies as much as they learn from the old ones. UIs need to become both cutting-edge and stripped back. And just as importantly, they need to create a bridge between an increasing number of content silos. UIs should be the map that helps guide the consumer to the center of an ever-expanding content maze.

  Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, senior director, product marketing, NAGRA.

This article originally appeared in TVB Europe.