A recent paper published by GfK sheds light on the state of the audience data market, and outlines a clear direction for the future of data in an internet-enabled TV world, while exploring the benefits of Big Data for broadcast.

GfK, the Society for Consumer Research) Germany’s largest market research institute, and the fourth largest market research organisation in the world, brought forth a new report last week, titled, ‘Big Questions, Big Answers: Will harnessing smart data for audience analytics save the broadcast industry?’

“The potential offered by Big Data is immense. Currently, everybody is engaged in data experimentation and there is a lot to fight for,” notes the Global Lead of the Media and Entertainment Industry at GfK, Mr. Niko Waesche.

“There are some key questions and challenges around the use of Big Data, especially within a rapidly evolving TV consumption model. Our latest paper looks at how Big Data is being used in the real world specifically in our industry, and where Big Data will be headed in years to come,” he added.

For this report, insights came from respondents that included key decision makers and executives from 14 media groups spanning companies that cater to more than 70 million subscribers and deliver content that reaches nearly a billion people every day. Astro, Channel 4, Digicel, Genius Digital, GfK, Liberty Global International (LBI), Magine TV, maxdome, Orange France, OSN, Sky IQ, UFA, Verizon and Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) were the participating broadcasters.

“Capturing and acting on behavioral data requires different capabilities and analytics from a purely asset-based approach. Broadcasters and cable providers should assess their capabilities now if they seek to remain competitive,” explained Tom Weiss, CEO of Genius Digital, a partner company of GfK.

Salient findings of the report are:

• Owing to the “diverse and increasingly demanding” TV audience operators are shifting from gleaning asset-based data towards behavioral insights to better understand and respond to the needs of content curators and advertisers.
• Behavioral data is key. Behavioral data unlocks new insights by capturing the who, what and when of the viewer, and places it in context alongside more traditional asset based data such as plays and subscribers.
• Suitable infrastructure helps ensure “intelligent transformation and interpretation,” of troves of behavioral and asset based data, enabling a better understanding of the audience and emerging trends.

The report in its entirety is available here.

Photo credit: Lubs Mary. / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Recent data gathered by data mining firms and governing authorities in Europe has revealed the current unemployment and inflation situation in Eurozone, and things might just be looking up for the hard hit.

Key elements of Eurozone’s findings, as The Guardian pointed out, are:

1. Statistics provided by Eurostat show that the inflation rate reached -0.3% last month from January’s decline to -0.6%, unlike the rapid fall in prices as was expected. It also points out a 1.1% rise in the service sector prices while food, alcohol and tobacco prices went up by 0.5%.
2. As the labour market in the Eurozone sees some upswing, a 33-month low in the unemployment rate was recorded., which went down to 11.2% in January, from December’s 11.3%, lowest since April 2012.
   A drop of 140,000 in the number of people without a job in January has been revealed by Eurostat, which still leaves 18.059 million unemployed.
3. The current president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dojsselbloem, heading the talks with Greece, told Financial Times that the €7.2bn remaining in Athens’ €172bn bailout might be released this month.“My message to the Greeks is: try to start the programme even before the whole renegotiation is finished.”“There are elements that you can start doing today. If you do that, then somewhere in March, maybe there can be a first disbursement. But that would require progress and not just intentions,” he said.

According to the findings of  financial information and services company Markit the Greek factory PMI moved to 48.4, from 48.3 in January. However, outputs were the lowest in 16 months pointing to shrinking orders and activities, owing to the political situation generated by the general elections of January.
Phil Smith an Economist with Markit, noted:

“The headline manufacturing PMI remained in contraction territory in February in a further sign that Greece’s economy continues to struggle under the weight of uncertainty.
Factories reported hesitancy among clients at home and abroad to commit to new orders, leading new business inflows to fall at an accelerated rate”

However the findings also suggest that there is a rise in employment in Greek factories defying broader downturn.

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(Image credit: Leonora Enking)