Half of all 16-24 year olds in the UK have registered with Channel 4’s viewer database. The broadcaster says it now has 10 million viewers that have voluntarily registered to its database, a process that has helped introduce new targeted advertising to video on demand, which in turn has driven digital revenues.
The next phase of the strategy will see the data on viewer behaviour helping to inform the creative teams in commissioning and marketing.
David Abraham, Channel 4’s chief executive said: “The speed at which we have grown our database of registered users in the three years since launch has been overwhelming and to reach 10 million registrations is testament to just how engaged our viewers are and how much they trust the Channel 4 brand”.
The project, overseen by director of audience, technology and insight, Gill Whitehead, Channel 4 has built a new data analytics and CRM team and invested in the latest Big Data technology. Enabled by open-source technology and cloud based platforms, much of which has been built by companies in Silicon Valley, the analytics team have been able to process high levels of data at low cost – loading and analysing billions of viewer interactions in much shorter times than would be possible on traditional closed source technology.
An increasing proportion of registered viewers have linked their Facebook, Twitter or Google+ accounts to their Channel 4 accounts, so that known fans of shows are now re-contacted via Twitter when there is news about their favourite show returning.
As Channel 4 looks to further develop its reccomendation engines, it is looking to use recomendations to further its public service obligations.
