Congress Questions Cable Ad Venture

Congress put cable TV operators on notice that it will scrutinize their plans to roll out targeted advertising to viewers, questioning whether they will use set-top boxes sitting in millions of homes to monitor and store what people watch.
Associated Press,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress put cable TV operators on notice that it will scrutinize their plans to roll out targeted advertising to viewers, questioning whether they will use set-top boxes sitting in millions of homes to monitor and store what people watch.

As part of a broader discussion Thursday over Internet privacy issues, lawmakers at the House subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet brought up cable's newest advertising endeavor called Canoe Ventures. They asked whether, and to what degree, set-top box data will be used to send targeted ads to viewers. That would mean, for instance, that pet food commercials are routed to households likely to have pets, based on a tendency to watch TV shows about animals.The questions come even before Canoe, which was formed by the nation's six largest cable TV operators last year, has launched its first targeted advertisement.

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Canoe has no current plans to use data collected by set-top boxes, said Kyle McSlarrow, chief executive of the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn., who spoke at the hearing.

If cable companies use set-top box data in the future for targeted advertising, McSlarrow said, they will have to comply with existing cable laws protecting private consumer information.

"They're very conscious of the privacy implications of what they do," he said.

Canoe has two advertising products in the works. One uses demographic data, such as age and income, to send relevant ads to customers starting this summer. The other, slated for later this year, would involve interactive ads, such as a button that pops up during a car commercial for viewers to click on with their remote control to get more information.

McSlarrow said the latter has a "built-in opt-in" system. Viewers would have to click on the button before information would be sent to them using the address on file with the cable company.

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Comments (2) -

Trin Nickname posted over 3 years ago
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I am a Dish Network user in Texas. This application is already in use here with them. A car commercial comes up or a new movie preview comes on and I get an option to click to find out more information or get entered in a "chance to win" promotion. Is this not supposed to be going on? Is it newer than the past 6 months? That's how long I have been a Dish Network customer and that's how long it has been going on. Anyone else have this with their Dish or cable company already?
GuyInTheKnow Nickname posted over 3 years ago
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What you are referring to is Dish Network's ability to "superimpose" or layer a message on top of a commerical break that is being fed from Dish's uplink headend. The technology has been around for several years. Dish Network Media (advertising sales) Group likely partnered with a company called NAVIC (or similar firm) to enable this feature. They've been doing it for a couple of years or more. A request for information (RFI) is just one of the few applications available. The ability to target specific ads to your household is also feasible through third-party data providers. The idea is that certain advertisers might be willing to pay significantly more for say an upscale, "higher demographically" skewed household (imagine Mercedes-Benz's ads only being delivered to HH's with $100,000+ incomes that have an American Express Gold Card and a High Net Worth.) The issue is partially a consumer privacy one. Couple that with the half-dozen largest cable operators all backing a venture like Canoe with upwards of $100 million or more, and it's no surprise a few people in government are raising their eyebrows.

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