Privacy needs to be reckoned with by “Advanced TV” industry. and this will be more and more the case.
According to the press, marketers are investing more and more in advanced TV targeting. Rather than broadcasting the same ad to all households, advanced televisions serve targeted ads to each household.
The term “advanced TV” is an “umbrella term that refers to several forms of streaming TV content, including connected TV, TV everywhere, linear addressable and video on demand (VOD) addressable” (source) which includes:
- Over-the-top (OTT) connected TVs, where the provider serves content over the internet bypassing the closed networks of telecom and cable providers. See here.
- Addressable TV, serving different ads to different audience segments watching the same TV program.
As of 2018, in the United States “the growing availability of “over-the-top” (OTT) IP-delivered premium content on TV sets, supported by 70 million connected “smart TVs” and over 50 million standalone OTT boxes, is leading to ever-growing consumption and advertising opportunities. OTT advertising spend, defined as ad impressions generated on television screens by YouTube, Hulu and other OTT content providers and operators like Roku, will reach $2.2 billion this year, up by +40%. Meanwhile addressable TV campaigns are also attracting increasing budgets: $800 million in 2018 (+27%).”See Magna Global Advertising Forecast, Spring 2018).
It comes without saying that this type of targeted advertisement is powered by data, a substantial amount of data.
Considering the growth of advanced TVs and the extension of data collected, TV stations, station groups, and local advertisers should carefully evaluate their data processing policies and put in place best practices where no regulation has been set forth by the authorities.
Originally published on Technethics on November 2018