What’s better than watching an amazing catalogue of content for a small monthly subscription? Doing the same for free… Enter Free Ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, where you can watch compelling programming in a TV-like playlist in exchange for ads, but with easier access, choice and value to the consumer. With high adoption rates across American and European markets, it is gathering momentum as a new way to drive continuous audience engagement and high-value ad revenues.

The ROI

According to a recent Deloitte report on digital media trends, 47% of Americans now watch free ad-supported streaming TV services. Estimates cited in TV[R]EV’s research take OTT ad spend in 2025 to about US$25 billion, with FASTs being central to this growth. Big players like NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, Amazon etc, all want a piece of the action.

The success of FASTs can be attributed to a number of factors:

• Free
• Large content libraries
• User experience akin to a traditional TV
• Device agnostic and pre-installed on many smart TV platforms

And most importantly, they carry more relevant yet lower ad-loads than TV.

 The graph above shows the number of ad impressions through FAST channels on Wurl reaching 12 times since launching in 2020. Not only that, but FAST channels performed better over time with higher viewership numbers and better ad fill rates, leading to more revenues.

Contingent upon many factors, including channel placement, ad fill rate, average CPM, content quality, duration, and refresh rates, FAST channels will drive ad revenue from $2.1 billion in 2021 to $4.1 billion in 2023. Such a return is more than enough reason for the excitement in the market to counter the decreasing revenues in linear TV.

A key differentiator, moreover, with the FAST linear viewing experience is its capability to support a wide range of audience and advertiser verticals, as shown in the following data compiled by Pluto and Tubi.

What Next?

FAST is still in its early days, with Pluto TV, the most well-known FAST channel provider having launched in 2014. What isn’t new are the typical issues that OTT providers have around measurement, user management and targeted advertising – in other words, the data ecosystem and its management.

At present, much of this data comes from disparate platforms and ad servers rather than neutral 3rd parties leading to issues of transparency and incomplete datasets, be it for audience analysis or targeting and post-campaign reporting.

Therefore an effective data strategy that links up all the different sources to unify and validate the reporting will be key. Streamhub is working with multi-service media companies including FAST channels to develop such linked measurement and reporting data platforms that can work across multiple markets.

As such, Asian markets can look to learn from early adopters in the West to build smarter collaborative models from the start, and enter the FAST lane.

To learn more on the latest in OTT/CTV and data developments, check out our blog (https://streamhub.co.uk/news/) or email bizdev@streamhub.co.uk.

Anurag Gangras

QA and Support Analyst

Anurag is an exerienced QA tester and marketing Analyst, with a passion for all things video. By night he is also a talented video content creator. 

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The post Life in the FAST lane appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.

Last week, news broke of an AVOD platform that unifies all the public broadcaster’s content in the UK. A familiar story? Too late? Not in our opinion from what we have experienced and seen abroad. As a start, this is great news for the consumer. It’s about choice, discovery and convenience to access top content with a local flavour, and, more importantly, it comes with a level of trust, openness and standard conducive to a healthy CTV marketplace for all parties involved. 

On an encouraging note, local pureplay ventures in the US (Hulu) and Japan (TVer) have been competing well against the global platforms which have incomparable budgets and data, proving that they can deliver on-demands driven both by advertisers and consumers.

We have found that Japan’s BVOD market closely mirrors the way in which the “traditional” TV markets have always operated. That is, it’s all about great content, a shared technology infrastructure (don’t compete with pipes), and a trusted transparent measurement system across all the market participants. 

Given that the UK and Japanese media markets have many similarities, there are probably a few things we could learn from it. Based on our experience, here are the 7 factors that will be key to making UK’s BVOD marketplace a success:

1 – Free or not Free– Will it really be AVOD or at least a hybrid freemium model like Hulu? The Limited success of SVOD services such as Salto and Britbox within their own domestic markets would indicate. Will it follow the TVer or Hulu model? Or will it be Project Kangaro all over again

2 – Building a choice-spoilt audience – To what audiences will the services be focused on? How will content strategy, recommendations and promotions be decided?

3 – Funding and Operations – How will it be funded? Will everyone have an equal investment into it? How will ad or subscriber revenues be split if it’s a single brand? 

4 – Advertising – It will be a great case for pushing a standard for a CTV marketplace. But how will the advertising be sold? How will it link with the various private marketplaces and programmatic platforms owned and operated by broadcasters?

5 – Governance – Who will be responsible for operating the service equally? How “independent” will it be? Who are the employees? 

6 – Regulation – Whether mandated by the government or done as self-regulation, operating standards and open measurement is surely a prerequisite for a sustainable marketplace?

7 – Data and Authentication – Who will own the data? Who will manage the data with impartiality and transparency? Will there be a single unified login across the broadcasters? 

Let’s take a deeper dive into this last point. Streamhub’s implementation in Japan is a joint effort with the local JIC to provide an independent audience measurement and activation infrastructure for the OTT data. In this case, the ownership of the data is not the broadcasters’ per se, and rather the JIC’s, which immediately resolves many conflicts. This approach also opens doors to all other AVOD services in the market to be measured equally. 

Another key factor was to enable data enrichment: whilst the base content measurement is shared, Streamhub platform enables each broadcaster to bring its first party data to create unique enriched insights and segments for targeting. This provides each broadcaster a competitive edge in the depth of audience segments each one can offer, whilst keeping the bulk of the data open. 

Whilst there are many things to consider for a fair assessment, the supply of continuous fresh premium content and a free advertising-led proposal will be winning factors. We have seen its success with the aforementioned examples and of course YouTube. Furthermore, boundaries between linear and OTT viewing are beginning to blur, TV devices are now interactive, and more census viewing data available through the TV. 

We feel all these factors are strong indicators pushing towards a vibrant brand-safe CTV market built on premium content, further cementing the plausibility for a unified AVOD service to succeed. And in such a scenario, how the data is handled will influence the bedrock stringing together the complexities and trust of the ecosytem.

Learn more about the UK public broadcaster content unification news.

 

Aki Tsuchiya

CEO & Founder

A TV / OTT innovator, Aki’s foundations in the content business were built at Viacom together with the executive teams who launched MTV in Japan and other Asian markets. He subsequently joined the Skype founders to build Joost in 2006 – pioneering online TV products, strategies, and business operations now widely adopted by the industry. As CEO of Streamhub, Aki oversees the evolution of the SaaS product and business operations.

The post 7 questions about a unified AVOD platform in the UK appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.

The free version of Google Analytics (GA) is a good tool for general web tracking and the natural starting point for all kinds of businesses wanting to make sense of what’s happening on their website. But we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch…

The world of online video is a different battleground where a more specialised set of tools can make all the difference in understanding and engaging audiences correctly. Without it, it’s a bit like taking a Boeing 747 into an aerial dogfight – a great piece of machinery, but it’s not going to help you give any edge over your competition.

 

Moreover – many content owners are blissfully unaware that it’s possible to leverage their data to go beyond useful insights, to actually expose real 1st party data segments to power and automate Ad targeting, Marketing, and Editorial workflows. 

We’ve prepared this article to highlight what you give up in taking GA’s free service, looking at the differences with Streamhub to help you understand the right set of tools for your business. In many cases – a combination of GA and Streamhub can provide the most powerful and cost effective solution.

 

You should consider using Streamhub alongside Google (or other generalists) if:

1. You want real audience data to power your workflows

The first thing to point out is the whole world of possibilities for your data beyond insights and reporting – that’s data activation. This means connecting your audience data directly with other essential tools used to run your video business, such as Marketing Platforms, Ad Servers or CRMs, and using it to directly power your actions.

Free Google Analytics provides you with insights and reporting – but in terms of leveraging your data, that’s where it ends.

The combination of Streamhub Analytics and Activate allows you go to beyond insights and use your real 1st and even 2nd party data to power your digital workflows and hit real world business KPIs.

2. Video is a serious investment/part of your service offering

To measure video engagement properly, you need content metadata based reporting, time-watched metrics, technical stream quality metrics and audience profile information all coming together to create a holistic report of what’s really going on. This is not something generalist services can do.

Let’s face it, monitoring video metrics in GA is like pushing a square peg into a round hole!

Streamhub was built by online video professionals, for online video professionals – providing the necessary metrics to help you understand streaming audiences is what we do best.

3. Data ownership is important to your business and its future

Did you know that google owns all the data you push through GA and can use it as they see fit? Not to mention it’s a data privacy issue time bomb. 

With Streamhub, your data is YOUR data and it is processed just on your behalf in a GDPR compliant way. 

4. You want to manage your data, your way

With GA you have no rights or capability to export your own data for use elsewhere. 

Our tools give you the flexibility to export your raw or aggregated data and manage it according to your business needs.

5. You want to understand your users, not just count them

Google provides quick aggregated metrics for your overall web interactions – but it only handles anonymous data AND it’s often sampled so you don’t get customer context nor precision.

Streamhub enables the analysis of each user behind the plays, what content they like and how their behaviour change over time.

6. Your service is on many platforms and needs deduplicated counting across-platform

Whilst GA does a good job in covering website traffic, it gets much more difficult when you add mobile and other connected devices – moreover, your users are ‘duplicated’ as they move across devices.

Streamhub can track your unique users across web, mobile, connected TV to harmonise the data cross-platform using your userIDs.

7. You prefer support from real video data experts

Google won’t give you live support unless you spend $150k a year with them.

Streamhub’s dedicated team of data experts are on hand via email, phone or live chat to answer your questions and support your needs. 

When should I use Free GA? 

GA should be sufficient for your business if:

• Video is a side-kick.
• Your priority is the website and not apps / connected devices.
• You’re more focussed on overall trends (page views, bounce rates, unique visitors, etc) than tracking the interests or profiles of your individual users.
• You don’t care about data ownership nor to be able to use your data down the line
• You’re only interested in tracking the effectiveness of your off-service marketing activities.
• You’re not looking for precision (e.g. conversions, revenues) and happy using sampled data. 

When should I use Streamhub? 

You should consider Streamhub if:

• You’re serious about video as content.
• You want to own your data and manage/export it for use elsewhere.
• You want to get a deep understanding of your individual users and audience segments, to the extent of communicating with individual customers based on what the data says.
• You need to fuse metadata such as rich program data, user registration data or subscription data to the video viewing.
• You operate multiple channels / brands / apps, and need all the data harmonised in one place.
• You want to gauge the quality of the delivery & streaming you are delivering across all devices.

In short, many customers end up using Google Analytics and Streamhub together if video as content, or as a means of monetization, is crucial to their business. A few have also upgraded to use the paid Google Analytics 360 at $150,000+ per year, or to other alternatives such as Kissmetrics and Adobe Analytics, whilst keeping Streamhub as the solution to cover all things related to video or OTT engagement. 

Hopefully this article has helped you think about the most important metrics for your video business right now, and made it clear how Streamhub Analytics could further enhance your use of data. 

If you’re still unsure which tools are right for you – please don’t hesitate to reach out via our contact form or live chat. The Streamhub team are here to help.

Written by Dan Turner

Business Development Lead

A multi skilled marketeer and OTT industry specialist, Dan has a huge passion for the power of online video as a medium for connecting people and ideas. His experience in online video began at the Xbox Live division of Microsoft, before moving on to a number of innovative start-up and scale-up businesses in the OTT space.

The post Google Analytics or Streamhub? 7 Signs it’s time to look beyond GA for your Video/OTT Analytics appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.

From Shack 15 News
https://news.shack15.com/five-founders-share-5-tips-run-startup-london/

Launching a company is no small feat. Running it, though, and hopefully steering it on a successful course, is even harder.

While London is close to be the ideal place to be a startup founders, even the best have to come to grips with challenges and work hard to reach important milestones. What are the best ways to do it? We asked five companies — residents and former residents of SHACK 15 —for advice.

What does it take to scale a startup?

Speaking from an enterprise SaaS product point of view, it’s confidence in the product and having a clear picture of how it is helping improve the customer’s lives.  This can only come from customers using and buying your product.  As such, keeping focused on revenue-generating development is the first rule.

Then a second rule is strategically prioritising the client opportunities to the best of your capability.  You’re continuously burning money by just breathing air. It sounds retardedly simple, but you just need to make sure that for every £ spent, there’s going to be an equal or bigger return in revenue, market value, or historical significance. No time to waste.

What is the hardest challenge when it comes to running a data science company?

Getting to the bottom of which data sets and insights has the most direct ROI for each of our customers. Also, learning and edducating from customers is always a challenge with B2B.

What opportunities does London provide?

It provides an English-speaking market which makes it relatively easier to setup sales with a larger number of companies and initial pool of good quality talent.

How important is the workplace for a startup’s success?

Having the right homebase is always important. Our startup is inherently distributed with many remote workers. However the product decisions are made here in London, so being in an environment with other startups also working with big data is crucial in the exchange and nurturing of ideas.

If you could give one business recommendation to yourself five years ago, what would that be?

Fail faster and improve even faster. It’s difficult with B2B since sales cycles are long but some of the lessons learned could of been improved upon much quicker such as bad hires and bad features.

Written by Aki Tsuchiya

Founder & CEO

A TV / OTT innovator, Aki’s foundations in the content business were built at Viacom together with the executive teams who launched MTV in Japan and other Asian markets. He subsequently joined the Skype founders to build Joost in 2006 – pioneering online TV products, strategies, and business operations now widely adopted by the industry. As CEO of Streamhub, Aki oversees the evolution of the SaaS product and business operations.

The post Sharing Tips on How to Run a Startup in London appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.

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Our trilogy completing piece in The Guardian exploring the business case of TV’s big data future.

With original series now launching every fortnight, Netflix’s business model is truly pioneering. Where next for the company?

Netflix is the most successful paid internet TV service and a poster-child of the great media migration to time-shifted viewing around the world. No ads, no scheduling constraints, and entire season sets made available based on customer data. It’s the emergence of a new model and viewing habit set byNetflix.

In early January the Golden Globe awards saw the traditionally dominant broadcasters make way for Netflix and Amazon, with Kevin Spacey taking best actor for House of Cards and Transparent taking best comedy. This provided further clout to the next generation of “data-driven” productions. With such a prelude, the anticipation has been rife for House of Cards season 3, launching today. The company also plans to launch a new show every fortnight.

Founded as a mail-order DVD subscription service in 1999, Netflix has come a long way to become the second-most popular primetime video destination, behind YouTube

Fifteen years on, Netflix just announced $5.5bn in annual sales, having pivoted to a premium streaming service where subscribers are privy to an all-you-can-watch experience. In context, that’s half of what CBS ($13.8bn) makes today, and approximately double ITV’s revenues (£1.8bn). An impressive milestone for a venturestarted with just $2.5m in cash.

People now invariably expect the latest shows and films to be available for streaming, legally or not.

In other words, bingeing is becoming de facto, with the number of UK legal bingers estimated at three million, while more than 20 million (around 30%) are still engaged in piracy. So the rise of Netflix surely has been a good thing by fighting piracy and returning $5.2bn to the studios in licensing revenues.

The data trailblaze

Netflix has proven that a legitimate and independent paid video streaming service can succeed if the right cards are played. Since 2012, Netflix has made more than 250 hours of original programming, receiving nominations for 45 Emmys, 10 Golden Globes and three Academy Awards.

Later this year we can look forward to Netflix’s first feature film – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny. Already causing a stir in Hollywood, the production is a move as bold as the$100m House of Cards story, where for the first time a major feature film will be premiering both online and at cinemas on the same day – as long as thecinema chains don’t all boycott it.

What is its secret? Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos recently reaffirmed that the company relies on its rich subscriber data to take editorial decisions where “seventy is the data and thirty is judgement, the thirty needs to be on top”. But what data do the commissioners leverage?

Though it is largely unknown, their metric is focused on engagement to identify hard-boiled loyal fans that drive the spread of the title, as opposed to relying on passive viewing figures. Such loyalty data from different fan groups act as a yardstick of elements to bet on for the next big thing to specific audiences. This is not dissimilar to how Amazon creates unique shopping suggestions for every user. For example, Hemlock Grove is a data-driven commission with a clear target to the tween segment.

Hollywood is also jumping on this data bandwagonas they seek to substitute the use of traditional research companies, instead relying on social media-based data mining to discover potential hit factors for their next film.

Future challenges to Netflix and the industry

Netflix have done exceptionally well to mix a third-party distribution model with original content development, thereby mitigating the risk of studios hiking up prices. HBO and CBS recently announcedthey will be giving chase to Netflix by starting their own services. Broadcasters have been offering catchup services since 2007 but inevitably pegged to the broadcasting deals. While they have stopped relying solely on panel data, it is the first time they depart from the traditional ad model.

While Netflix enjoys its first mover advantage, their biggest threats are Amazonand YouTube’s new ventures. Both companies have deep pockets, big audience data and relentless ambition unrestrained from having to look after broadcasting interests. So what does Netflix need to do to remain dominant?

• More of the same – original content production worldwide, more diversity (lifestyle, gaming, sports) and subsequent licensing and merchandising revenues

• Tie-ups with broadcasters and cable/satellite companies on premieres, keeping Netflix ad-free

• Pay-per-view option for premium film and TV titles including live sports

• E-commerce opportunities for in-show transactions, experiences and product placement

• Partnerships with retailers, device and car manufacturers and theatres

• Fan-sourced commissioning of content to cater for every niche

Netflix, with a limited original content pool, is the go-to online entertainment binger’s club and deservedly walking among the giants. But nothing last for ever – just look at Blockbuster.

Netflix’s success is fuelling the confidence of the “nouvelle riche” entrants, paving the way for a big-spending competitive marketplace. Whether Netflix will prevail or whether the likes of BT, Amazon or YouTube will take over, let’s hope for three things: more choice, better content and better value.

Aki Tsuchiya is the founder and managing director of Streamhub

The post House of Cards: how Netflix’s $100m gamble made them internet video kings. appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.

Our follow up piece in The Guardian on translating TV big data vision to reality in 4 easy ways.

Better use of viewer data could transform how broadcasters and advertisers reach consumers. But where do you begin?

I recently wrote about how the TV industry should mine bigger data to stay connected with the digital audiences. Whilst online networks like YouTube and Netflix dominate the digital market, big data insights will help media companies transition into the new frontier, in light of a lack of growth for the traditional channels.

TV must pioneer new avenues for the entertainment industry. Young viewers are watching less TV and have been flocking to online video services by the millions. Behind those, powerful next-generation data technologies generate deeper understanding by cross-referencing terabytes of consumption data in real-time.

But finding new avenues is a potentially complex process. Here are four key approaches to make data work for you:

1. Comprehensive data collection:Every minute gone is another minute you could have learnt something important about your content and what your customers truly think. Every video stream, every “like” shared across social networks, every upload to Youtube – these are all data points worth knowing. Add to this the tracking of more traditional influences such as the competitors, news and the weather. Quantity does matter.

In TV, data volumes are massive. The BBC iPlayer commands 7m online requests every day.

Youtube and Netflix together dominate nearly 40% of UK internet traffic during prime time. Each video viewed contains hundreds of different data attributes that may uncover monetisable insights later, so the structure and capability to collect should not be a hindrance in harnessing this abundant data.

2. Mining richer behavioural insights:Analysing data in the right context is not trivial. Organisations often face analysis paralysis not knowing how best to leverage the data. Ultimately, we are asking the same old question about “who is watching and why?”, but with more precision. Having “attributed” data services will be crucial during this step if anything is to become actionable. Too often you end up with unattributed data that just states a fact.

The BBC’s David Grossman advocates a move away from “lowest common denominator” scheduling, giving power to the writers for great storytelling to particular audience segments. Netflix grows its business by best predicting the likeability of their user experience and content by mining segments for every user.

YouView validates Facebook and Twitter’s influence, saying that 24% of 18- to 24-year-olds now get their TV recommendations from social media.

It is crucial that decision-makers digest such relevant evidence from their audiences to unravel the multitude of trends and demands, in turn feeding editorial and marketing strategies who can immediately action the insights to sharpen their competitive edge.

3. Adopting an open data culture: Data is not just a science, it is a culture. Sufficient cases prove data-driven companies yield higher performances over its traditional competitors. But this also means executing a fully aligned top-down plan as Skype did to gradually get rid of the organisational silos and investing in people who are able to materialise this new vision. Coordinated open cultures working with the same data set leads to better creativity.

So media companies have a lot of tools with which to kick-start a next generation economy for TV but it is a case of risk and reward. For those moving forward it is a question of defining what is the business model, what is the right data and, most importantly who are the right people to ensure the company’s actions are linked to what viewers are telling you.

4. Embracing the right technologies: Automation is key for data-driven digital services in TV. The direction and choice of technologies will influence your eventual success. Database architectures, machine learning and real-time visualisation will give competitive edge. As audiences diversify, you will need to rely on automated editorial, marketing and advertising processes driven by audience insights.

Already in the UK, the market for online video advertising has grown by 62% to £325m, far outperforming the total UK digital ad spend growth of 15% to £6.3bn, with the share of programmatic advertising growing every day.

TV is not dead, in fact it is more alive than ever. Far from the digital era ushering in the demise of TV, people are watching more shows than ever before. In the US, the digital video market is set to top the $2bn (£1.2bn) mark this year. The appreciation and value for all kinds of content will keep on increasing, whether that is prime-time drama, live sports or long-tail webisodes. Competition now comes from a far wider set of services including the web, compelling TV companies to become ever more agile to cease this opportunity built on its greatest assets – its content, audience (data) and creative culture.

Aki Tsuchiya is the founder and managing director of Streamhub.

All Guardian Media Network content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘advertisement feature’. Find out more here.

(http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/aug/29/tv-advertising-big-data)

The post How can TV ride the big data wave? appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.

Aki’s thoughts on the big data future for TV featured on The Guardian.

In retail, Amazon and Tesco have blazed trails, mining insight from millions of consumers at scale to better buy stock and recommend appropriate products to consumers. In finance, American Express is crunching account holders’ transaction history en masse to identify loyalty and pre-empt churn. And, in sport, player and match data is now so abundant that clubs like Chelsea are examining attributes of players from leagues around the world to spot new talent.

With a few exceptions, however, the TV industry is still not taking full advantage of the data opportunity to plan its future better.

Of the 146 pilots shot in the US in 2013, costing close to $400m, only 56 made it to air. That’s a hit rate of just one in three; and only a minority of those eventually graduated to a first full season. Advertising is also confined to brands with big budgets.

So, is it possible to predict a successful programme from a TV ratings-disaster in the making? The UK ratings panel Barb (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) measures TV viewership using a sample of just 5,100 homes. And, over the years, it has done a sterling job of quantifying TV viewing, establishing the trading currency in the media. However, in an increasingly fragmented, multi-channel environment, when you consider that there are around 25m homes in the UK, Barb analysis is only meaningful for the big channels who can operate on the large rounded figures as they command the lion’s share, but this makes it a significant challenge for the hundreds of emerging channels who target niche audiences.

In the analogue age, broadcasters commissioned content for a broad mass of people who watched just a few shows on just five channels. In lieu of further media choice, broadcasters had to focus their efforts just on the single dimension: primetime slots. And, while the 7:30pm slot is great, from an advertising perspective it means that much spend is wasted. The vast majority of buyers would prefer to reach tightly-defined, target consumer groups.

Today, TV can do better: audiences are shifting habits, advertisers reared on extreme online targeting and control demand it, and commissioners groaning at yet more failed pilots need it.

Fortunately, the game-changer, even for linear TV, is digital audience data. Encouragingly, online viewership of TV content on broadcaster services is booming. BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4OD consumption is up 18% and 6% from last year. In the US, 22% of adults watch original digital video every month, while viewing on connected TVs has doubled in the past year and more than 70% are being used to enjoy web content. As such, audience panels are now just one data source. All these new platforms represent new inputs that give planners and buyers deep, rich and immediate understanding of content and advertising performance, where none was previously available. The benefit of better data to TV is not just better targeted programmatic campaigns, but also real insight into campaign effectiveness at the individual level.

Recent technology advances are allowing organisations to process massive amounts of data and conduct complex analysis at relatively low cost. This allows machine learning algorithms, for example, to predict audience behaviour more accurately by statistically modelling historic viewing and engagement patterns.

Some are beginning to reboot TV in the way that makes good on these promises. For example, by examining its subscribers’ appreciation for previous content plus the popularity of political drama across its network, Netflix was able to commission House Of Cards without the expense and delay of a pilot. Meanwhile, CNN uses data from three different analytics platforms plus TV ratings to tailor its editorial programming to viewer demand.

Advertising, too, is getting smarter. From this summer, BSkyB will start sharing with advertisers the viewing habits of 500,000 subscribers. By telling advertisers what viewers are watching, the AdSmart set-top box technology lets both national and local advertisers serve much more relevant advertising to particular categories of viewers. The prize is clear: a better service for time-poor viewers whose very behaviour is telling you what they want, and a better service for advertisers who want demonstrable bang for their buck.

But, while there are a handful of examples of innovation, not enough in the industry are adopting these approaches. Too many in the TV industry are dragging their heels when it comes to data, and they risk getting left behind when audiences and advertising budgets make a bigger shift towards digital. The companies that use data to give viewers and advertisers a better experience will win the emerging TV game, whilst those that don’t will find it difficult to compete. Big data has been the driver of great new opportunities across industries. It is time the TV business got aboard the bandwagon.

Aki Tsuchiya is the founder and managing director of Streamhub.

All Guardian Media Network content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘Advertisement feature’. Find out more here.

Tags: Video advertising, Advertising, Television industry

(http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2014/aug/04/tv-big-data-mine-customer-netflix)

The post Television must mine bigger data or risk being Netflixed. appeared first on Streamhub.co.uk.