Professor Duane Varan - New media expert
Creating the future of television
The future of television is being shaped right here at Murdoch University, with world leading researcher, Professor Duane Varan, pioneering the way people view TV. Imagine if you could control what happens on your favourite television show. And wouldn’t it be great if you could forever ban that annoying TV commercial from your screen?
These are just two options viewers of the future will have in the brave new world of television. The medium is in the midst of one of its most dramatic periods of change but the future of worldwide television trends is being mapped out at Murdoch University’s Interactive Television Research Institute.
TV revolution
The institute’s director, Duane Varan, is a world expert on what makes TV work and how it impacts on those who watch it. “New technologies are ushering in a period of significant market disruption,” Professor Varan said.
“The advent of digital technologies like personal video recorders, interactive TV, portable video devices, digital television and internet protocol television is rapidly accelerating the industry’s changing dynamic. "It’s forcing the industry players – including advertisers – to move from a paradigm centred on exposure to one increasingly focused on engagement with the viewer.”
Professor Varan said the old one-way model of beaming content into the living rooms was a dinosaur. “In the future, viewers will have a lot more control over what is shown on their screens,” he said.
World leader
Professor Varan’s pioneering research has attracted the attention of the world’s largest television networks, including the leading US networks. The networks have identified a need to create new programming and advertising models to ensure television continues to offer ‘compelling viewing’ in the face of increased competition from constantly emerging media technologies.
“Advertisers, naturally, feel overwhelmed by the many changes at hand,” Professor Varan said. “They’re asking what impact their ads now deliver.”
Big brother central
What people watch, when and how they choose to watch it are among the key questions Professor Varan’s team is trying to answer.
Research taking place at the institute’s Audience Research Labs give Professor Varan and his team unprecedented access into people’s TV viewing habits. They can monitor not just what people prefer to watch, but also what is going on in the viewers’ minds while they decide what to watch next.
“We can measure their eye movement to see which part of the screen they’re watching, and even whether their eyes are actually on the TV screen,” he said. “We can also tell if they’re excited by what they see on the screen.” It is crucial information TV networks around the world are desperate to decipher if they are to maintain their appeal to the increasingly fussy viewers.
And so, as colour screens once changed the way we watch television, research pioneered at Murdoch University is set to turn the entire industry on its head.
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