Providers of TV mine data to target ads
take page from google on viewers’ tastes
U.S. cable companies and satellite TV providers, locked in battle with broadcasters and online sites for advertising, are taking a page from Google Inc. by using data on their subscribers’ tastes to serve up tailored commercials.
In Los Angeles, a 35-yearold female direcTV subscriber with a cat might get a spot promoting cat food, while the satellite provider would beam a car advertisement to her next door neighbour, a bachelor watching the same channel.
direcTV combines data it collects from viewing habits from its customers’ digital video recorders with information from third-party market researchers in categories such as income, gender, age and buying habits. This is how it figures out how to send the right ad to the person on the other end of the pitch.
“We can target based on demographics, household income, geo-targeting, home owners versus rental — a wide variety,” said Paul Guyardo, chief revenue and marketing officer for direcTV.
This makes commercials more relevant to customers and “can move dollars back into national television because we can provide the same targeting as online ads,” he said.
direcTV said it keeps this data anonymous and in “aggregate form” so it does not invade its customers’ privacy.
dish Network Inc. and cable providers Comcast Corp. and Cablevision Systems Corp. also let advertisers create “addressable” ads, using thirdparty data on demographics and buying patterns to aim for certain types of subscribers.
direcTV and the other providers said they do not target ads based on the specific programs customers watch.
Part of the information direcTV uses comes from data on which customers pay for premium subscriptions, watch shows on demand or how much they spend on movies.
dish’s senior vice-president of media sales Warren Schlichting said his company is taking a more conservative approach than direcTV by choosing not to target ads based on behavioural viewing habits. He said this is because dish does not want to make any customers uncomfortable.
Comcast declined to comment about why the company does not use TV viewing data to tailor ads and Cablevision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pay television providers say the data they use is kept anonymous and aggregated, which blocks them from connecting a name and address with specific details about a household, and that customers can opt out from receiving targeted ads.
Even so, some consumer advocates bristle at the amount of data TV providers can use to target ads to viewers.
“They have more information today through your TV viewing than they have ever had before,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for digital democracy. “Consumers are getting little in return except an invasion of privacy.”