The BBC’s Research & Development department is currently testing the idea of content that changes depending on who’s watching it: the length of scenes, the pace of the action and even the colour cast can all be adapted depending on the tastes and preferences of the viewer.
For the experiment, data is gathered through a simple mobile app that checks up on your listening habits and asks a few personality questions; in the future, information about you could be gathered from all kinds of sources, the BBC says.
As they’re delivered over the web, television shows and movies could even be adapted on the fly based on your mood or the time of day. Your current location, gender and age can all potentially play a part in the order and structure of the scenes shown on screen.
Repeat viewings
And the technology could make repeat viewings much more palatable – individual elements might change the second time around to suit your current situation (if you’re viewing a film with the family rather than on your own, for example).
“Broadcasting over IP enables us to create all kinds of new content experiences that would not be possible or scalable on ‘traditional’ TV or radio,” says the Beeb. “We’re investigating how to create personalised media which feels natural to the audience and exciting for the storyteller as it scales for millions of individual audience members.”
So far only a small scale trial has been run with a limited number of testers, but the broadcasting corporation says it wants to create a public prototype that anyone can test out in the near future.
