MVPDs Should Be 'Transparent' in Gathering Consumer Data, Says Report

A third of U.S. broadband households feel online video services are “poor protectors of their data” compared with pay-TV providers, said a Wednesday Parks Associates report. “While traditional companies in the pay-TV marketplace use data in all of their decisions, new companies in the entertainment ecosystem such as Google take data use to the next level," said Parks analyst Brett Sappington. Companies built in the age of big data “iterate their services, software, user experiences, and content investment decisions much more quickly than traditional players,” but traditional pay-TV players have the advantage of consumer trust, Sappington said. Roughly a fifth of U.S. broadband households are “highly sensitive” to collection and use of information about themselves and their activities, said the report. Parks recommends pay-TV providers and cable networks continue to gain data-oriented expertise and integrate data-centric features into their offerings that are “transparent to consumers" about data being gathered while offering subscribers incentives for data collection. Among other findings: 42 percent of U.S. broadband households would have more confidence in sharing data if they could access a website or app that shows what data is being collected; 40 percent of households strongly believe it’s impossible to keep data private from companies whose products they use; and more than half of consumers don’t believe they get much in return for sharing data. Parks projects the North American pay-TV market will shrink to 73 percent market penetration by the end of 2023 vs. 79 percent this year.