Abstract
The paper explores the relationship between the concept of “big data” and television broadcasting changing toward a Connected TV ecosystem. We start from the literature-based assumption that big data is a slippery and ambiguously used term and then discuss how the term is employed in different scholarly discourses to explain the changes concerning broadcast television. We infer that the big data phenomenon requires much closer attention to research in media economics in an attempt to advance our theoretical understanding beyond technological issues that server data, social media, rich customer databases and return path data can deliver. We find that analyses into big data can help understand both opportunities and threats of its use with regard to legacy broadcasters trying to add value of audience research in order to achieve competitive advantage. While asking how big data adds value to a broadcaster’s decision on corporate strategies in Connected TV is important, we remain skeptical as to what effectively is to be gleaned from “big data” when methodologies are not transparent and audiences are sold as mere data commodities to advertisers.
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Murschetz, P.C., Prandner, D. (2018). ‘Datafying’ Broadcasting: Exploring the Role of Big Data and Its Implications for Competing in a Big Data-Driven TV Ecosystem. In: Khajeheian, D., Friedrichsen, M., Mödinger, W. (eds) Competitiveness in Emerging Markets. Contributions to Management Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71722-7_4
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