New DSTV Feature, Maybe?

This post is purely fantastical, does not solve any pressing global problems, and may or may not highlight my laziness.

As with many Nigerians, there’s a DSTV decoder (also known as a set-top box in other circles) in my house. Comedy Central is the default station I watch, and there’s always some ad or the other about different shows and showtimes. This happens on other channels too, e.g. I could be watching something on MNet Showcase and along comes an ad for “The Kingsman, showing on Sunday, 7th April” (or something along those lines).

When I see ads for movies or shows I’d like to see, I think “I want to watch that”, but I can’t always remember the schedules, and it almost never occurs to me to pull out my phone and schedule a reminder to “watch The Kingsman”. So, it might be nice to have one or more of the following options as the ad is running:

• press a button on the remote control that will either record the movie on the day it shows (and save it to DSTV Catch Up) or
• pop up a reminder (to make you tune in) if your TV is on when the movie starts, or
• send a reminder to your registered phone number or email address 30 minutes before the movie is due to start.

I don’t know whether this is feasible or not, but let me think through how it could work.

DSTV has a thing called Connect ID, which lets you sign in to your DSTV account so you can catch up on series, movies, etc across multiple devices; schedule recordings on your DSTV Explora when you’re not home, rent box office movies online or stream to your mobile device, etc.

To get a Connect ID, you must register with an email address or mobile number. Your Connect ID is (or should be) also tied to your decoder smartcard number, so it shouldn’t be that much of a stretch to include a “Press ‘OK’ on your remote to get a reminder for this movie” message when a movie ad is being shown. The user flow might look like this:

• You’re watching TV, and you see an ad for Godzilla, showing on MNet Showcase on Sunday, 7th February;
• the voice over and message on the screen prompt you to press ‘OK’ on your decoder to receive a reminder for this movie, and that might look like this:

• you press ‘OK’, and immediately receive an email or SMS to confirm that you’ve set up a reminder for Godzilla, showing at 14:00 on February 7th, 2016.
• at 13:00 on February 7th, you receive another email or SMS to remind you that your movie will begin in 1 hour.
• at 14:00, if you’re watching something else on another DSTV channel, a regular reminder will pop up to say Godzilla has started and you will be redirected to channel 108 in 7, 6, 5, 4…etc seconds, with the options to “tune now” or “cancel reminder”.
• a future iteration could include the option to record the movie to your Explora by pressing a button provided in the email, in the event that something has come up and you can’t watch Godzilla right now.

If your account is set up to receive SMS reminders for movies, then at some point, you might begin to chafe at the SMS charges and wish to switch to email. To fix this, I can think of 2 ways:

• Include a link to change message reception settings in every movie reminder email and SMS, so that people who currently receive reminders via SMS can switch to receiving via email, and vice versa, OR
• When the movie ad comes up on TV the first time and a user presses ‘OK’, let 2 options pop up: Send reminder via email and Send reminder via SMS (local charges apply). That might break the experience a bit, but it’s an option. I mean, it’s the same way when you’re browsing channels and you settle on something to watch, you press ‘OK’ and see a pop-up with options to ‘watch’, ‘record this programme’, ‘set reminder’, etc.

Alright I’m done, please let me know if I missed anything. Also I don’t know about other DSTV subscribers, but having the option to be reminded of an upcoming movie will improve my viewing experience, for sure.