Commentary

This Is Your TV Brain. This Is Your TV Brain Run By An Algorithm

Silly Algorithm.  Now ESPN shows us there is more to TV recommendations -- more to actual TV viewing -- than what an algorithm says.

So a new ESPN promo called “Queue” recognizes that viewers have enough brains to figure out what they want to watch — and that TV recommendation search engines are lacking.

The spot opens with woman sitting on a couch, with the TV on.

Her streaming queue suggests she watch a film about a diamond heist.

Then, looking out the window, she see some kids playing basketball, which gives her an idea.  She realizes: “Duh, the Warriors game is on.” And changes the channel to  ESPN.

No surprise here. ESPN is pushing the valuable idea of live sports -- with consumers.

Live sports continues to be the savior of many sports networks -- especially from those critics who point to high carriage fee costs that can be passed on to pay TV consumers.

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But those same pay TV providers can also benefit. Live sports programmers is also known as “premium” TV programming these days, commanding premium TV advertising cost per thousand pricing -- from local and national advertisers.

Live sports is a major draw in a world of advertising avoidance that seems to be growing on digital media platforms. Still, to be sure, TV recommendation engine/software will grow in importance as media continues to fractionalize.

Algorithms and big data helps lot of TV businesses. But stuff always falls through the cracks. Algorithms can’t do everything -- currently, at least. Silly television.

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