SALON

Wednesday, Dec 26, 2012 9:11 PM UTC

Targeted ads coming to TV

Ready for TV ads customized to your age, sex and income? Too late

By

Topics: Television, Advertising, commercials, technology, Business, Sony, Gracenote, , , , ,

Targeted ads coming to TV Televisions (Credit: via Wikipedia)

Get ready for TV that watches you back.

As targeted advertising has fueled the growth of internet giants like Google and Facebook, the $70 billion TV commercial market has remained in the dark. Sure there are beer ads during the Super Bowl, but to a far greater degree than on the internet, advertisers just pay for their spots and hope to find a receptive audience. That could change next year with the debut of a new technology from Gracenote, a division of Sony.

TechCrunch reports, “Gracenote‘s new ad replacement system combines viewing habits with personal info to show you more relevant commercials.” While some consumers will undoubtedly appreciate a technology that delivers ads for things they’re more likely to buy—reporter Josh Constine writes “I literally left my meeting with company giddy with the possibilities” – some blowback about personal data collection is probably inevitable, like the last gasps of a defeated army.

Constine describes the technology as follows:

Uses video fingerprinting to identify what you watch and when a show is about to go to a commercial. It integrates your viewing habits data with another tech provider like INVIDI’s ad decisioning engine that pulls in public information about your gender, age, income, if you rent or buy your home, if you have a car lease, and other credit profile info. The ad decisioning engine’s algorithms crunch the data and decide what ad would be most relevant to you.

The article describes a demonstration where a man with income of $50,000-$75,000 might see an ad for a Honda while a younger, women with a lower income watching the same program would see an add for Levis. Through another technology, Gracenote will also be able to coordinate with “second screens” such as tablets to customize that part of the viewer experience as well.

While TechCrunch doesn’t lay out a definitive business model for Gracenote it offers several clues. The technology could be built into TVs which would also alter “the balance of power in TV ads by giving TV makers a seat at the table with broadcasters and advertisers” and provide a boost to the moribund manufacturing business. Gracenote will also be able to collect much more accurate information about TV commercial performance, data big advertisers would be happy to pay for.

 

 

Alex Halperin is news editor at Salon. You can follow him on Twitter @alexhalperin. More Alex Halperin.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 4 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations