ABSTRACT
While the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence (AI) have been used for quite some time to make predictions and analyse data, the recent explosion in volume, variety, and velocity of viewership data collected from multiple connected devices is turning TV into a new frontier for predictive algorithms.
With General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) coming into force across the EU in May 2018, extracting actionable insights from TV service providers’ viewership data will become both increasingly appealing and challenging.
This is expected to make a significant impact on the economics of targeted advertising and marketing, which have traditionally relied heavily on third-party data. Our research indicates that the utilization of state-of-the-art AI techniques could help alleviate this reliance.
INTRODUCTION
European TV service providers are progressively waking up to a fundamental dichotomy that will dramatically impact their way of doing business. Never before has the business imperative for collecting customer data and implementing AI-aided services been so strong.
On the one hand, with the rapid migration from legacy broadcast protocols with no return path to ever more personal and immersive media formats (now accessed via natural interfaces such as voice and gesture control), viewership data is growing exponentially in volume, variety, and velocity (Gartner’s “3V’s”) (1). On the other hand, the dramatic shift in viewers’ attention that occurred in recent years in the favour of digital platforms whose businesses heavily rely on data has caused TV service providers to accelerate the “datafication” of their business operations as they look to compete on equal terms.
Yet never before have the stakes of navigating the intricacies of private data protection regulations been so high. With GDPR coming into force in May 2018 in each EU member state, the mismanagement of customers’ personal data can result in fines of up to €10 million or 2 percent of global turnover, whichever is higher (serious offenses are double those amounts, up to €20 million or 4 percent).ate data protection regulations been so high. With GDPR coming into force in May 2018 in each EU member state, the mismanagement of customers’ personal data can result in fines of up to €10 million or 2 percent of global turnoate data protection regulations been so high. With GDPR coming into force in May 2018 in each EU member state, the mismanagement of customers’ personal data can result in fines of up to €10 million or 2 percent of global turnover, whichever is higher (serious offenses are double those amounts, up to €20 million or 4 percent).offenses are double those amounts, up to €20 million or 4 percent).
The recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica controversy, along with Facebook’s subsequently stated intent to apply the same privacy protections throughout its footprint, signals that GDPR will likely become the gold standard of privacy regulations with real impacts beyond the strict borders of the EU.
The story of the GDPR tidal wave impacting traditional marketing and advertising practices is just starting to unfold before our eyes. One does not have to be an expert on the EU law system to foresee that reliance on third-party data will be made riskier and the incentives for extracting new insights from first-party data will become stronger due to stringent user consent management obligations under GDPR.
For EU TV service providers, this could induce few possible strategies with regards to the collection and monetisation of TV viewership data (assuming full GDPR-compliant opt-in) and renewed interest for state-ofthe-art machine learning techniques. This paper will explore some of the possible strategies and shed light on concrete insights that could be derived by TV service providers from their viewership data through advanced predictive algorithms.
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