Topic 'Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming' in forum 'Comcast Cable TV' - dslreports.com

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:11:01 EDT

telcodad posted : According to this article on the Multichannel News site today, Comcast is looking to have its targeted-ad system deployed across the country by the end of next year:

Comcast to Widen World of Addressable Ads
Source: MSO Plans to Have Invidi’s Targeted-Ad System Deployed Across U.S. Footprint by End of 2014
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - March 14, 2013
»www.multichannel.com/cable-opera···s/142214

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:15:57 EDT

The Q posted :

said by Drunk:

So...when we all watch the Superbowl we might not all be watching the same commercials?

"Hey did you see that funny XYZ commercial?"

"No."

The Superbowl is on a broadcast TV channel, not on a traditional cable channel so I doubt that any cable company will be inserting anything (personalized or not) locally on the Superbowl (on purpose).

It sounds more like traditional targeted direct mail where I get a Petco postcard with a coupon for dogfood (since I have a dog) and my brother would get a Petco postcard with a coupon for cat food (he has a cat).

Petco knows this information because we opted in to their PALS CARD discount card that yes, also tracks your purchases just like any grocery store club card does (or warranty card info that you fill out online).

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:09:08 EDT

jagged posted : no

This only pertains to national ad buys and/or with a participating local station. A TV station's ads cannot be overriden by the cable company's ad server unless a slot is specifically allocated to them by the station.

Some retransmission agreements allow for the cable company to insert ads - like with Headline news

Unless your broadcast station allows Comcast to plug personalised ads nothing of what they sell or schedule to air directly would get cut off

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:14:36 EDT

Drunk posted : Can any of you change your preferences? Once I log into xfinity, go to account, and navigate to the Segmented Advertising preferences, once I click on it I just get a waiting screen and it sits there.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 23:57:44 EDT

Drunk posted : So...when we all watch the Superbowl we might not all be watching the same commercials?

"Hey did you see that funny XYZ commercial?"

"No."

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 21:56:00 EDT

camper posted :

said by THZNDUP:

... An inserted cue should be much more of a positive indicator that an ad slot may be filled than any predictive method including 'video fingerprinting'. ...

On that we agree.

said by THZNDUP:

The 'anticipate' part I was guessing at would be to get any background work done prior to getting the cue to actually start the insert. Assuming a hybrid system at this point, it would predict a slot is about to be opened up, look up the program history, demographics, select the ad and get it buffered awaiting a start cue. Which is also somewhat counterintuative as the 'pre-roll' cue would also do better as the heads up.

Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

said by THZNDUP:

Since I haven't caught any of the ads you have described here, they may very well be local to your region/group/system. Which channel/channels are the worst offenders?

You are lucky that you've not seen the ads I see here. HD video of zits on peoples' faces, and recently chests and backs, along with animation of the cross-sectional view of the pus being removed from zits. The Proactiv commercials are totally gross.

I can't find rhyme nor reason for the placement of the ads. They seem to be on most of the non-broadcast channels on cable, and seem to appear multiple times per hour. Sometimes there is a second or two of another ad at the beginning, then that ad gets overlaid with the gross proActiv ad.

said by THZNDUP:

At any rate, I'm sorry that Guthy-Renker and Comcast feels they may sell more of their product there than here...........

I suspect you may be more thankful than sorry. :)

Thanks for the good discussion.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:03:18 EDT

THZNDUP posted : First off, I didn't say there 'will' be cues, only that I assumed they were still in use in some fashion. An inserted cue should be much more of a positive indicator that an ad slot may be filled than any predictive method including 'video fingerprinting'.

The 'anticipate' part I was guessing at would be to get any background work done prior to getting the cue to actually start the insert. Assuming a hybrid system at this point, it would predict a slot is about to be opened up, look up the program history, demographics, select the ad and get it buffered awaiting a start cue. Which is also somewhat counterintuative as the 'pre-roll' cue would also do better as the heads up.

Since I haven't caught any of the ads you have described here, they may very well be local to your region/group/system. Which channel/channels are the worst offenders? At any rate, I'm sorry that Guthy-Renker and Comcast feels they may sell more of their product there than here...........
--
one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:59:24 EDT

camper posted :

said by THZNDUP:

I wasn't aware that there was a predictive mechanism for the actual local ad inserts being used. I was under the assumption that there were still subaudible/digital cues for local commercial preroll, start, stop, etc. as when they were on tape. As well as most of the 'screwups' were still a result of too long/too short material, early/late cues, etc.

I was just going by what the article I initially linked to said. All the better if the cuing is as you say. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how accurate the cuing really will be.

said by THZNDUP:

I also took the 'video fingerprinting' to merely determine what you are watching. It also anticipates when the network will go to commercial, either national or local. just to enable the various lookup and decision making to be set up. The actual insert would still be keyed specifically.

I think you may be giving more credit to video fingerprinting than it may deserve. First you say that there will be "subaudible/digital cues for local commercial preroll, start, stop, etc.", then you say that "It also anticipates when the network will go to commercial". So which is it? Will it anticapte the commercial, or will it wait for a cue?

said by THZNDUP:

ProActiv is a local ad? Wonder what Guthy-Renker has to say about that.

I use the term "local ad" to describe an advertisement that is placed into the content at a local level. I draw the distinction between a local ad and a local product. The ads placed at a local level for a product that has national exposure is a local ad, i.e., it is a local ad buy.

So the high definition views of zits on the chests, backs and faces of people, and also the animation of the pus flowing out of those zits; when written over the network ads by the local cable head-ends and shown locally instead of the network ads coming off the satellite, are local ads.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:02:04 EDT

THZNDUP posted : I wasn't aware that there was a predictive mechanism for the actual local ad inserts being used. I was under the assumption that there were still subaudible/digital cues for local commercial preroll, start, stop, etc. as when they were on tape. As well as most of the 'screwups' were still a result of too long/too short material, early/late cues, etc.

I also took the 'video fingerprinting' to merely determine what you are watching. It also anticipates when the network will go to commercial, either national or local. just to enable the various lookup and decision making to be set up. The actual insert would still be keyed specifically.

ProActiv is a local ad? Wonder what Guthy-Renker has to say about that.

[edit] Forgot Justin.......... :D

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoGoeT41onM

--
one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:52:16 EDT

camper posted :

said by THZNDUP:

The cable system ad avails would make the most sense for now. They have the means in-house to identify the 'video fingerprinting' and to narrowcast the specific ads. Something the 'content providers' wouldn't have the means to do....

When I said the content providers could provide the "place ad here" cue I was thinking that there would be a signal at the start of the ad block.

Video fingerprinting works, most of the time. When it doesn't work, it is not pretty. I've seen video fingerprinting "recognize" show material as a commercial. I'd really prefer not to see commercials pre-empt parts of a show just because the video-fingerprinting system goofed.

Portions of the ad slots are already made available for local ads, that aspect is nothing new. The providers wouldn't necessarily be dropping any additional national ad revenue for local ads.

I don't have a problem with local ads appearing (except in the case of the gross ProActiv ads). I just have a concern that fingerprinting may not be as accurate an indicator of when to start the local ad as many think it is.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:28:52 EDT

THZNDUP posted : The cable system ad avails would make the most sense for now. They have the means in-house to identify the 'video fingerprinting' and to narrowcast the specific ads. Something the 'content providers' wouldn't have the means to do.

I can't see the providers dropping a portion of their national ad revenue just to narrowcast to a smaller target. Kinda like getting different Go Daddy/Dorrito spots during the SuperBowl........
--
one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:18:58 EDT

camper posted :

said by egeek84:

actually it's funny you made this thread because i noticed this option in the 'basic settings' portion of my account about a week ago.

Thanks. After about 10 minutes of fighting the navigation of comcast's site, I finally found that Advertising Preferences page.

I opted out.

Now, hopefully, I'll stop seeing those gross proActiv ads every 20 minutes on all the channels.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:04:28 EDT

camper posted :

said by andyross:

... It would only be done during certain pre-determined times.

I would hope that be the case, though I remain skeptical.

Reading the article, the place to insert the commercial would be determined by video fingerprinting of the program material, and not by an "insert ad here" cue provided by the content provider.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:19:42 EDT

egeek84 posted : actually it's funny you made this thread because i noticed this option in the 'basic settings' portion of my account about a week ago.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:46:26 EDT

andyross posted :

said by camper:

So when a TV show is about to go to commercal, the ad replacement system overides whatever is coming down the cable and puts its own ad on the screen.

This has the likelihood of overlaying the news and/or weather announcements and updates that are often shown during commercial breaks.

I think this would be an enhancement of the standard ad inserts Comcast and others already do. It would only be done during certain pre-determined times.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:43:04 EDT

camper posted :

said by dandelion:

All it will get is what my brother watches.. he won't be buying *shrugs*

Wait until cameras start appearing in STB's, and video recognition software knows who is in the room watching the TV. Then that data are used to target ads to the people in the room and the activity they are, ummmm, engaging in..

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:37:59 EDT

camper posted :

quote:
A smart TV or set-top box with Gracenote’s ad replacement technology 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.

Re: 'Personalized' TV ads coming

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:55:39 EDT

dandelion posted : All it will get is what my brother watches.. he won't be buying *shrugs*

'Personalized' TV ads coming

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:17:47 EDT

andyross posted : From the Thursday morning links:

quote:
Gracenote’s Ad Replacement System That Personalizes TV Commercials Will Start Trials In 2013

»techcrunch.com/2012/12/26/gracen···ted-ads/