Live TV on digital signage screens... pros and cons

Many digital signage users want to display live TV on their screens since it's relatively easy to do.  There are lots of software and hardware components available that will let you display live TV from any source (cable, satellite or over-the-air) so why not do it?  After all, you can install a good digital TV tuner card or USB device in most PCs and this will let you display live TV on your digital signage screens.  If your software platform supports the TV tuner card you will be able to schedule playback of the channel and in many cases you can even integrate the live TV feed in a screen layout with other content.

So what's stopping you?

Well... before you take the plunge you need to ask yourself if live TV content is worth the cost.  I am talking here about licensing costs, not just the costs associated with acquiring and deploying the hardware and software required to make it work.

You see, anyone who wants to re-broadcast a live TV feed must first obtain the rights from the TV networks or from their cable/satellite company.  Laws vary from country to country so anyone interested in displaying live TV on their digital signage screens should definitely seek advice from a lawyer before they proceed.  No one wants to get sued or fined for not complying with local copyright laws.

Here are a few links where you can find more information about the legality of displaying live TV on digital signage networks:

• Digital signage, live TV and the law
• Could showing live TV on your digital signs be illegal?
• Is your live TV legal?

Does live TV fit in your overall content strategy?

Here are a few very important points that many digital signage users overlook.

• Does live TV add or detract from your message?  
• Do you feel you need to display live TV on your screens because your own content is "weak" or uninteresting?  
• Have you considered adding live data feeds or soliciting viewer involvement through interactivity, QR Codes, SMS or Bluetooth?  

In most cases, you will get a better outcome if you update and refresh your content often or get your viewer involved in what's playing on screen.

On one hand, live TV is seen by many as a way to display professional, high quality content at zero cost (because they don't factor in the cost of acquiring the distribution rights).  They are not aware that live TV may in fact reduce the impact of other content displayed on your screens.

If you operate an advertising network in a public area and mix live TV with your own content, you may simply end up diluting the impact of your client's advertising.  Viewers who are looking at the TV content will be less inclined to pay attention to other ads on your screens.  You may get more total viewers but are your clients really getting their money's worth?

However, there are plenty of venues where live TV works...  Take sports bars for example.  But sports bars are required to pay their cable company for redistribution rights and in most cases they are forbidden to alter the signal.   This means they are not allowed to re-purpose the live TV broadcast and mix the signal with other content like 3rd party advertising.  So, they can play the latest hockey or basketball game on a big screen but they cannot add their own advertising at the same time (on the same screen).

Assuming you have acquired the proper redistribution rights, you should be allowed to play back live TV on your digital signage in full screen format for any given time as long as you do not alter the TV signal in any way.  I don't see any problem with switching back and forth from a full screen live TV feed to local programmed advertising as long as you don't integrate the live TV with other advertising content on the same layout.  Ultimately, I would caution anyone reading this to seek the advice of a legal professional and confirm this with your local TV provider.

In a sense, digital signage technologies give users the ability to create their own private TV channels.  When treated as such, users can distribute content that they create themselves or that they commissioned from a 3rd party.  In any case, they own the content so they are free to distribute it in any way they want.

Things can get complicated when dealing with content that you don't own.  You must decide if the content is worth the cost of acquiring the usage rights.  In most cases you may find it's better to stick with your own content.