Targeted Advertising Using Digital Set-Top Boxes

Moonshine writes: "Interesting story at TVTechnology regarding targeted advertising using new techology. Seems like all set-top boxes have a unique ID and they can send a code to any given one to change the channel for the period of the targeted ad and the viewer is none the wiser. What about privacy...well: Invidi says its system is designed to assure privacy. 'The system never knows what the viewer is watching since the headend never knows specifics about what the set-top box is doing,' said Anderson. 'And we never associate the set-top box address with a physical home address.'"

Comments

I often wonder...

[BrK]

Stories like this are becoming all too common today. "Targted" Ads have been the wet-dream of marketing ever since Oogg sold a the first wooden club to Vorg.

I read these press releases and "stories" and have to wonder out loud if Marketing departments are made up of some odd aliens from another planet. How can one human being possibly conceive that this will make our viewing experience more pleasant? These Marketeers watch TV also (when they're not getting quotes from each other), would *they* want to be ad-targeted? I highly doubt it.

The Public has consistently shown, especially in the area of TV, that we don't want advertising interruptions, targeted or not. Products like Tivo and Replay have been invented to help us skip ads. Other products have been invented to normalize the volume during commercials, so they're not so freakin' loud. This last one really gets me, these advertisers know we go to the loo, or make a sandwich (or do both) during their commercial that we have no interest in seeing. So their solution is to SHOUT the commercial at us. It reminds me of some little kid running behind me screaming for attention whenever the volume on the commercials goes up. And of course, they have a technical reason to explain that the average volume really isn't louder, it just seems louder (pay no attention to the dishes rattling in the china cabinet).

TV has become pure and utter garbage, only a tiny fraction is barely worth watching. It has gotten to the point that it is not even worth the effort to hack the hackable systems like DBS.

Personally, I'd say at this point you can shove your PVRs and digital cable and HDTV and targeted ads right up the collective ass of Madison Avenue.