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Big Brother man backs behavioural ads and DRM

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 9 Dec 2009 at 10:51

Peter Bazalgette - the man who brought Big Brother to our screens - has claimed that behavioural-advertising remains the best way to fund online content, despite the high-profile failure of Phorm in the UK.

"I think in the future we’ll buy our free content with two commodities: our attention span and our personal data," said the former chairman of Endemol, who sprung to the defence of Phorm back in May.

"If I have some of your personal data and I can serve you a targeted advertisement, that advertisement is worth more, and the revenue that flows from that advertisement is worth more, and that's a good thing to have."

Though he didn't name Phorm directly, Bazalgette acknowledged that behavioural-advertising companies had to avoid issues such as the secret BT trials.

Behavioural advertising needs to be done with consent, it needs to be done transparently, but it’s potentially very powerful going forward

"It needs to be done with consent, it needs to be done transparently, but it’s potentially very powerful going forward, if we get the public policy correct and privacy is observed," he said.

DRM debate

The sentiment is unlikely to win Bazalgette many friends among privacy advocates, but he didn't stop there. While the public has increasingly pushed for DRM-free content online, Bazalgette claimed this was an unsustainable business model.

"It’s quite clear to me that a lot of content owners don’t have proper digital rights management strategies and they need them, whether they’re a single artist or a television producer, or whoever they are," he said. "I find, as I go around talking to content owners, that they’re long on complaints and short on action."

And just to complete the hat-trick of controversial statements, Bazalgette also lashed out at the Government's plans to provide everybody in the country with a 2Mbits/sec broadband.

"There’s a conflict between having fast broadband and universal broadband and I don’t believe we can have both at the same time, and at the same pace," he said.

"Because of the state of our content industry, and the state of economy in general, it’s more important to have fast broadband than universal broadband. We all want world peace and apple pie, but I think fast broadband comes first and it’s going to be an economic stimulus," he concluded.

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User comments

"I think in the future we’ll buy our free content"

Oh aye? And will you give me some free money to buy my free content with.

By Lacrobat on 9 Dec 2009

To which the only possible reply is...

Ph**k off. And take your grotty little spying tools with you.

By nichomach0 on 9 Dec 2009

looks to me he's just trying to heighted his own profile with some shocking statements.
as nichmach0 said
"Ph**k off"

By DaChimp on 9 Dec 2009

What about online content rights?

Behavioural targeting using private and confidential communication traffic is a euphemism for mass industrial espionage, intellectual property theft, commercial copyright infringement, and unauthorised mass personal communication surveillance.

All of which are *criminal offences* for good reason.

Industrial espionage strips businesses of their customers. Intellectual property theft and copyright infringement strips content creators of their income. And mass personal surveillance denies us freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of expression and personal privacy.

That's why Phorm, and anything like Phorm, must never happen again in the UK. And the reason why the Directors of BT and Phorm must face prosecution and jail.

By felixcatuk on 9 Dec 2009

Higher-value money?

"the revenue that flows from that advertisement is worth more"

Yup, he's talking total carp - I'm in complete agreement with nichomach0 & DaChimp

By greemble on 9 Dec 2009

The fact that he is responsible for inflicting BB on us makes him worthy of being ignored in my eyes. I'm not really sure why he has earned a soapbox to air his views.

On a more serious note, DRM could find more favour if publishers remembered that the "R" stood for "Rights" not "Restriction".

By halsteadk on 9 Dec 2009

Yesterday’s man?

Big Brother, as formulated by Endemol, was a programme of its time. Big Brother is nowhere near as popular in this country as it once was; time has moved on. Similarly, DRM has been tried with music on the Internet and found to be wanting; things have moved on. We used to hand over our information to businesses, cross our fingers and hope for the best, never imagining that an iconic and formerly-trusted company could think that mass interception of their customers’ communications was a good idea. We are much more aware of the value of privacy and the increasing threats to it; things have moved on.

By pacid on 10 Dec 2009

Rights? or Wrongs?

halsteadk has a point but unfortunately it appears that the Rights involved with digital content are those of the creator not the "purchaser".
As the person paying to listen you have no rights, just a grudging admission that maybe you ought to be able to listen to the content you purchased at least once.

By mistersaxn on 10 Dec 2009

just make ads more relevant to the page

So website advertising isn't makeing enough money.
That may be the advertisers fault. Clever sites don't need info on the user. If you are reading an article on anything that mentions a product ( or a potential for a product) then you already know that the web user is interested in that area. For instance this page could have links to privacy sites, drm consultancies, legal drm free music download sites or cd stores, govenment sites and broadband providers. Instead ( a the time of writing) it has ads for blackberrys, windows 7 , antivirus software, and hd video cameras. not exactly percisely relevant content.
If they cannot get it right with all the info on this page why should we allow them to spy on us in the hope that they get better at it.

There is no need for spyware by another name. Advertisers just need to get smarter and more relevant.

By blagger123 on 11 Dec 2009

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