Set-top data, when married with demographic information and purchasing histories, has long been touted as the foundation of a new kind and a better kind of advertising—personalized, less annoying, capable of commanding higher rates from marketers who lament that half their ad budgets are wasted (i.e., selling cat food to dog lovers), but they don't know which half.
via online.wsj.com
In the WSJ, Jenkins maps out a scenario in which the dynamics of television change dramatically--perhaps much more far-reaching than the TiVO/DVR revolution.
The pretext is the pending GE/Comcast deal for NBC Universal. The reference to the cable companies as a "dumb pipe" is choice.
If that's what they are, they are in as much trouble as the music industry was a few years ago. What the industry needs, however, is an innovator to realign the variables, in the way Apple did in music.
It's bound to come from somewhere.
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