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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 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 -----------------------------------
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
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.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
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.