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Maybe you've heard this term before. Perhaps you've thought, "Is this just another way for your pay-TV company to violate your privacy?" Maybe just a little, but it's not a bad thing. DIRECTV and DISH have had what they call "addressable advertising platforms" for about five years. Cable companies were doing addressable advertising for over a decade. And now, as we slowly inch toward the next generation of TV broadcasting, antenna TV wants to have it too. What does that mean to you in your everyday life? Probably nothing, and maybe something not so bad.

You get Cheez-its, your neighbor gets diapers

"Addressable advertising" means that not every customer sees the same ads. You may see ads tailored to your location, your age, your viewing preferences, anything. The idea is that a pay-TV company wants to help national channels show relevant ads to local markets. Small cable operators have no problems showing local ads because they have local distribution points in every city, but this has always been a problem for satellite TV. They've solved this problem by storing commercial content on your DVR's hard drive and inserting it into your programs without you even noticing. A DVR can even serve ads to other receivers in your home.

The new generation of advertiser-supported streaming leans heavily on addressable advertising. You've probably noticed that a lot of ad-supported streaming has only a few commercials per hour. Compare that to up to 16 minutes per hour of commercials on broadcast TV. By doing a better job of targeting, these streamers can interrupt you less and make it mean more.

When it comes to ATSC 3.0, or NextGen TV as they want you to call it, the ability to serve personalized ads comes from the internet. Some of that data could be delivered over the air, but it's expected most of it won't. The companies who really want you to embrace NextGen TV believe your TV will be internet-connected anyway, so they plan to take advantage of it.

How do they know what ads to serve?

It can be something as simple as knowing where you live, which is information that they already have. However, you may also have opted in, allowed your pay TV company to collect data on your viewing habits. If you have, then they have a fairly good idea of what you watch and because of that, they can probably guess your age, gender, and some of your habits.

If you're interested in going down an internet rabbit hole, you'll find plenty of information, both benign and scary, about how companies can profile you perfectly. They can even guess who is in the room based on viewing preferences. This is happening constantly and the truth is you probably can't stop it. If you want to participate in modern life at all, you're going to be profiled. All you can do is try to manage it as best you can.

Profile data is very valuable to advertisers who want to find a way to spend their money on ads that get to the right people. The data that's collected is anonymized (any information that could identify you personally is removed) and then your pay-TV company goes to advertisers and says, "hey… do you want to reach 55-year-old men? We can do that."

Could this be a good thing?

Here's the important question you're asking… "how can this possibly be any benefit to me?" Remember that these channels serve ads anyway and any money that your pay-TV company (or eventually, the broadcaster itself) gets from advertisers is money they don't need to get from you. So it does keep your bill lower and if you don't like ads, just forward through them.

It's also possible that if ads are tailored well enough to you, you might actually enjoy them. It sounds like a stretch, I know. But think about it. You're certainly not likely to like diaper commercials if you don't have little kids. But if the commercial talks about a place you'd like to go, it might just be interesting enough to watch. That could — theoretically — mean a better commercial experience.

In the meantime, if you want to upgrade your pay TV experience or get into over-the-air television, get to know the experts. The folks at Solid Signal can help you whether you're in a home, car, boat, RV, or business. We're here for you during East Coast business hours. Call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below!


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