Is There A Privacy Issue In Cable Companies' Plan To Track Viewing Habits?

from the depends-on-how-you-look-at-it dept

Ryan Radia takes a look at the news that cable TV providers are teaming up to track viewing habits and questions whether or not there's a real privacy issue there. He comes to the conclusion that there isn't one for a few reasons. First, he notes that the data is anonymized and aggregated. That's true, but not very convincing. We've seen over and over again that there's no such thing as an anonymized dataset. There's almost always something in the data that can reveal at least some of the participants. Perhaps that's more difficult with things TV watching habits -- but not impossible. Next, he points out that the legal and PR impact of any real privacy violation would be pretty damaging on these companies. Finally, he suggests that the benefits of the tracking outweigh any negatives -- which, again is not very convincing. Just because a company can better target ads to you doesn't seem like an excuse to give up your privacy. That said, I do tend to agree that this isn't much of a privacy violation at all, but if the cable companies were smart, they should at least be extremely upfront about how the process works, and let people voluntarily "opt-in" to it, rather than being forced to join. Hell, they can offer incentives to do so. It's worked for AC Nielsen for years.

Filed Under: cable tv, privacy, tracking

Al Gore Throws Hat Into The IPO Ring...

from the not-quite-what-some-were-expecting dept

While there's still some speculation about an Al Gore run for the presidency, it appears he's got bigger fish to fry, such as an IPO for his cable TV station Current Media. Honestly, it looks like a tough sell as an IPO. It's not profitable. There are some serious questions about how viable a business it can be, and its "unique" angles, such as embracing the internet, haven't been all that successful (almost all of its revenue still comes from the TV side). If it succeeds as an IPO, it may be entirely on the strength of Gore's name, which seems like the opposite of what the company should want at this point.

Filed Under: al gore, cable tv, ipo, losses
Companies: current media

Class Action Lawsuit Filed By People Who Want A La Carte TV

from the seems-like-a-long-shot dept

For many years, there's been a pretty big debate over whether or not cable and satellite TV providers should offer "a la carte" options, where subscribers could just pick and choose the channels they want to subscribe to. At a first pass, many people think this would be great -- believing that it would save them money because they wouldn't be paying for all those channels they get but don't watch. However, this is short sighted. Studies have actually shown that in most cases a la carte offerings would end up costing more.

There are a variety of reasons for this. First, the pay TV providers would need to revamp their systems to support this, including their marketing and customer service setup, which would almost definitely raise costs. Second, what the current bundles do is allow certain popular channels to subsidize other channels. When you switch to an a la carte system, many of those subsidies are lost, and it would likely drive up the prices for many channels, rather than the other way around. So, while some people think it sounds like a good idea, it probably would likely result in a higher cable bill for many people.

However, that won't stop the class action lawyers from getting in on the action. A new class action lawsuit has been filed against the major cable and satellite providers, claiming that it's a violation of antitrust law that they don't offer a la carte channel selection. You can certainly see why some people would want it -- but it's unclear why pay TV providers should be forced to offer it. Either way, with the pace of change, it won't be all that long before this doesn't matter anyway -- and the entire concept of the channel is dead. We're reaching a time when people will simply subscribe to shows, and no one will worry about channels any more.

Filed Under: a la carte, cable tv