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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.'"
It's inserting ads into the streams. I can't believe a submitter didn't read the article, but...
They do this now, to some extent. Program feeds have spots in them which are filled by local broadcast affiliates/your cable company, so the ads are targeted for market. For instance, if I'm watching a baseball game, during the break my cable company gets to toss an ad in that break that they've sold themselves (this is the 'cablehead' they're talking about in the article), for a restaurant within the boundaries of the cable system's reach.
As to privacy, they're pretty much lying, or at the very least being intentionally oblivious. They're talking about knowing if you've just bought a car, or your lease is up -- they intend us to believe that it's okay to correlate that much personal data on me for purposes of serving me a targeted car ad, as long as they aren't able to deliver a sample pizza after a Domino's ad?
-- q
"All the information from the 2000 census is available for free from the United States government," Anderson said. "No one is out in front of their mailbox with a shotgun to prevent direct marketers from distributing targeted print advertising. Yet with television, there is a greater level of concern."
I use A P.O. Box.
Are they somehow going to give me the anonymity of P.O. television?
No.
They will use every means at their disposal to generate income once their "???" doesn't become "Profit!". And that means they are going to sell me out.
My mail does not come to where I live.
My Television does.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
If they don't get info from the set top box...
Info like what the user is watching and what they like etc...
Then how do they target the ads effectivly?
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
I've noticed over the last few months that I have started going days at a time without turning on a TV, even though I pay for Dish Network. I've considered just canceling the whole thing, and renting/buying DVDs when I want to watch a movie. This "targeted advertising" crap may be just what I need to convince me to quit watching TV.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I can't tell you what I was watching last night, but during the break I was sent the adverts for the following products:
1. Wonderbra
2. KY Jelly
3. Bacofoil
4. Kleenex Man-sized tissues
5. Chicken Tonight
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Constantly I keep on getting spam mails from a company who claims to offer targetted advertising. The blurb on their site tells me how they always get it right, and it is the best way to advertise. So what do I keep on getting adverts for?
Penis Enlargement
I got one the other day telling me that my girlfriend thought my willy was small... otherwise they are really making sure I get the right adverts and my girlfriend is just being nice, or they are talking complete shit.
I believe that my profiling engine will mysteriously report that I am only interested in free chips and cola.
Consumers to Adopt HyperMedia Content Via Broadband-Capable Digital Set-Top Boxes
WiReD HyperMediaDigitalConvergenceSetTopShinyBitz Correspondent N. O. Klue
Disney studios released today the first version of their newly enhanced HyperMedia set-top box with broadband download capabilities and integrated "minimally invasive" Digital Rights Management and custom advertisement software. Estimated street prices was your firstborn child or your freedom to think for yourself. The newest boy band (as of 12:53pm PST), Sen. Hollings and The Brown-nosers, was on hand for the release.
EFF spokesman quoted as saying "Yeah, it's really shiny. I wonder what the privacy concerns are? Down with the man!" A wild-eyed and very smelly hobo we pulled from the dumpster outside our offices here in SanFran was quoted as saying "As a content developer I love the potential for rich user experiences conveyed in a simple manner by a plug-and-play set top box that enables the Middle America idiots to finally see what all this HyperMedia business is about. Of course, then we're going to get requests for the 5am farm report in HyperMedia format." The hobo then threw up on our shoes, as reproduced in the sidebar graphic in stunning print-based, laptop-oriented paper HyperMedia graphics.
We managed to track down an entertainment industry executive to get an industry insider's viewpoint, at San Quentin State Penitentiary. He was quoted as saying that "...[T]his product will enable a new future of one-to-one digital HyperMedia advertising. My ass hurts." The executive then got into a knife fight over whose bitch he was and died.
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Sorry, that's just the reaction I have whenever somebody starts going off about rich media and set top boxes. Please mentally read this post as if it were in silver text on an orange background with high-gloss paper.
People that want rich content or digital convergence (maybe one person in a thousand) have computers. The vast majority of the public really has no interest in anything more complex than what is already on TV (the new opiate for the masses). This is why products that are aimed at the niche inbetween full computer users and Joe Sixpack always fail, the market for people that are interested but not computer customers is just too small. So nix selling this thing as an add on. Is the value of the marketing feature enough to offset the cost of just giving away the STBs? Becuase for 99+% of television viewers, the analog broadcasts they use for the news and sports and their soap operas is enough, leaving them with essentially zero incentive to switch.
I mean really, interactive TV, video on demand, digital set-top boxes. All of these are a festering mass of hype, void of any real utility or success in the marketplace. This has been pretty evident since the early-to-mid 90s. When are we going to learn?
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
The article says "No one is out in front of their mailbox with a shotgun to prevent direct marketers from distributing targeted print advertising."
That may be true, however with physical, direct-mail ads, the "viewer" has an extreme amount of control as to what he chooses to read, and what he chooses to throw away. He can look at something and say "crap, not interested", tear it up, and toss it in the trash. With television ads, however, all of them are thrown at the viewer on equal footing, and the viewer has to waste the time on them whether she or he watches them or not. (You can turn the TV off, but your show won't come on any sooner.)
This, of course, isn't true with recorded shows, but that's not what this is about. (Plus, the companies who think it's stealing when you ignore commercials are already working on ways to force you to watch ads, recorded or not, short of getting up from your couch. Fantastic.)
"And we never associate the set-top box address with a physical home address."
Maybe not, but I can imagine the set-top box address being associated with the unit's serial number, and the serial number in turn is what gets associated with the owner's name, address, phone number, etc - all of which is valuable to direct-mail and telemarketing.
With the onset of more and more invasive means of advertising (even sometimes popping up during shows), I'm glad I don't watch TV all that much anymore.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Waaaay back when Tivo was first introduced on the market, a friend and I were talking about the fact that it had a subscription fee. My take on this was...
I wouldn't mind anonymous statistics being collected about my viewing habits. If the company running the service didn't require any form of registration other than maybe some basic demographic info like my age, income, gender and geographic region. Once a company has my name/address/credit card number/phone number, etc, I don't want them collecting ANY information about what I watch or what kind of products I'm interested in, sorry. Since the Tivo was subscription-based, it didn't meet my criteria in this department.
An intelligent time-shifting capable set-top box COULD record commercials based upon your interests and play them during the "commercial break" of a show instead of the original non-targeted ads. This is something I'd actually like. I build my own computers, I don't need to see any Dell commercials. I am not female, I don't need to see commercials for home pregnacy tests. I don't drink beer. Etc, etc. There's a new show coming out that's like Junkyard Wars? Albertsons (it's a grocery store here in the south) is having a sale on Snapple? Those are commercials I want to see.
Even the Tivo's concept of "thumbs up/thumbs down" could be used on commercials... If it's a product or service I'm interested in, I can let the box know that's the type of commercials I'd rather see more of. While I know most people would rather have NO commercials, I consider ones that are at least relevent to what I'm interested in to be a reasonable compromise, especially if it gets me a TV timeshifting box subscription-free. And hey, it even benefits the advertisers since I'd be more likely to buy things that interest me... Everybody wins.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
I work in talk radio, and we run mostly syndicated national programming. The new receivers have the ability to send ads directly to our reciever at the station to target the market. The first use of this I heard was, interestingly enough, an ad for an upcoming television special. The end of the spot was tagged with the local affiliate's channel number (i.e. "See it on NBC 12). This also opens up national accounts more easily. Auto manufacturers often have promotions that are only valid in certain parts of the country. Those could be targeted directly to the viewer by location ("Stop by your Virginia Ford dealer, and get a rebate, blah blah blah") Also is good for companies that have different branding in different locales (Hardee's and Jack in the Box come immediately to mind).
I do concede, however, that this can be abused. The idea of having people over to watch football on Sunday, and all the breaks having ads for 800 sex numbers and "Girls Gone Wild" is a little disconcerting (based, of course, upon my^H^Hthe viewer's normal habits).
Sky TV already do something like this. A viewer in Ireland watching the same channel will get a different add to someone in england.
Cruise TT
Don't suppose you'll be reading this... but if you do, I'm having trouble finding the ram and flash on my DCT-2224's memory map. Took me awhile to realize that the rom is, well, a rom, so no need for a r/w pin... meaning it is 1 meg and not 512k in size. All this time I was figuring the second 512k was the flash...
Any help appreciated.
Oh, and if you could give me a hint just where the registers for the security chip is, I'd owe you big time.
This really is not something that bothers me as long as it does not mean *MORE* ads (which I would imagine is impossible since to do so they'd have to cut out portions of the shows and that would be really damn obvious).
If I have to see ads anyway, I would rather they be ads I might be interested in rather than useless crap.
I would much rather see car ads, computer game ads, ads about local events, specials at Giant or Safeway than see some useless crap like douche ads, tampon ads, that piece of shit Dell Dude (god he sucks), etc.
-Michael (Aristotle@Threshold RPG)
http://www.threshold-rpg.com
I mentioned this over a year ago... Motorola's DCT500 will have the capability (if the modules are added) and the DCT7000 will have it built in along with a PVR.
this is really really old news to anyone in the industry... we saw them in action at CAB over a year ago, and heard the first "goig to do this" news stories over 2 years ago. Motorola has then in late beta testing... so they already have them in existance and working... so this company is really late to the game and has a snowball's chance in hell at making it work... Espically cince the worlds largest Commercial insertion equipment company (Seachange) already has a seamless integration system underway to couple the cable system commercial insertion system with the digital Set top box targeted insertion system...
good luck to the new guys but motorola has it locked up.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Sounds too much like the movies these days to me. Remember how when this whole commercials before the movies thing got started it was *entertaining* commercials only and very few. Well, now we're up to six commercials and at least half of them are a complete yawn. Didn't drop the ticket prices, in fact they went up around here just like before.
So as far as I'm concerned they can keep all of their advertising "innovations".
But the problem with this is that some of my favorite shows (Farscape, SG1, WitchBlade) could take years to get the [currently] new episodes onto DVD and onto store shelves. I'm not willing to wait a few years to find out if Crighton comes out of a wormhole in an alternate reality. . . but I guess that's my fault for watching the show in the first place huh? ... hmm... and I guess there's always Kazaa...
Karma: NaN
Otherwise, how would settop box, S/N 7826435, network address # 132ABQ, get delivered to Joe Bloggs, who lives at 123 Main St?
Oh, I know. They give them out anonymously on the street. And then, somehow, the box automagically knows if I've just bought a car.
'And we never associate the set-top box address with a physical home address.'"
Don't lie to me, fool.
That's a false statement, at least the way it's presented here.
The aggregate census data is available - that's things like the median family size, ages and income within some small area. (by ZIP code?) It gives you a good feel for the neighborhood, but tells you nothing about the individuals.
The personal data isn't released for something like 70 years, so the details of the 2000 census won't be available until 2070. That's the release that would worry people, but in 70 years most of us will be dead.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Here's the way TV works:
-You identify an audience you think an advertiser wants. (ex, women 18-34)
-You develop content that will (hopefully) appeal to that audience.
-You sell access to that audience to the advertiser.
Take away the advertising and nobody gets out of bed in the morning.
Make the advertising more profitable and there is money to blow on the content. Make it less profitable and you'll be watching crap. Broadcast quality TV is still VERY expensive to make.
"No no", you say, "the greedy networks will just keep the money." I ask you, when has competition ever let that happen with any medium in the past?
Besides, nobody really cares that you watch more porn then PBS except you and your self inflicted guilt.
If this is true, then not only as someone above wondered how the ads are targeted, how does the headend know WHEN to insert the ad? I predict a LOT of angry consumers missing pieces of their favorite shows.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
One implication of this system is that good data as to what's a commercial and what isn't is embedded in the data stream. So ad blockers that work really well become possible. PVRs will be able to skip commercials more effectively. We'll probably see an add-on for Linux-based PVRs within weeks after this info becomes available.
So, by noting that you're watching episode 6 of season 3 of ER, it can tell you're in the 34th month of a 36 month lease? Sure it can.
You'll notice they were careful emphasise the privacy only on the viewing habits section. The rest of it they're actually planning to abuse your privacy (buying habits, loan details, medical insurance?, etc.) as much as it takes. But, by that point, they're hoping to have misdirected you with all the smoke and mirrors of intentional [mis]emphasis.
If they were any more intentionally dishonest about privacy issues, they'd be forced to run for congress.
Either you have an old box or your cable company loads it down with a lot of crap. You might check and see if you can trade your old box for a newer box. I had a problem with my cable, and they traded out the box (didn't solve the problem - had to solve it myself) - the new box had more memory and a faster processor - channel changes were quicker, the menu was quicker - everything was quicker (I have two boxes, and the other one is the old model, so I know that it is quicker, and not just me). The only thing I don't like about the new box is that it looks ugly. Also, check your cable lines - if you are getting garbage, etc on a digital box (ie, mpeg redraw crap) - your cable line may be crap - you want RG6 cable from the point where it comes from the cable company to your TV all the way - use 2.4GHz splitters only (some boxes have a "fall-back" mode to 900MHz that sucks - you don't want the fall back). If you cable is older RG59 (or worse), get it replaced if you can (in a house it is easiest - but if you are in an apartment, you are screwed). I am not saying the signal is causing snow, but if you have a slow older box, the processor is having to do a lot of extra work for error correction, etc on the signal that is getting through - causing the mpeg glitches, etc you see.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I wonder if the advertising industry has thought through this whole targeted advertising thing. Kids and their influence make up a HUGE market, but what if, say, a parent set up their preferences such that it did not include any kid-centric advertising - especially during the times when kids are most likely to be watching?
What if someone who is interested more in ensuring their privacy, sets up a profile that includes most of what he/she is never likely to buy? Sure, they'll have to suffer through the commercials, but that happens now anyway. The upshot is that they'll be protecting their privacy while maintaining the status quo, but still gaining the benefit offered by a set top box.
Hmmmm...a saying comes to mind..."Be careful what you ask for...you just may get it."