EU research project ViSTA-TV measures and optimizes TV experience

TV Statistics modernized and used for recommendation system

The EU wants to modernize under the Seventh Framework Programme with ViSTA-TV, the TV-statistics and make it available for spectators and participants of the TV-market. ViSTA-TV is powered by the anonymized raw data delivered by the IPTV‑ providers Zattoo and the BBC. With the help of algorithms that are cooperatively developed by researchers at the University of Zurich, the University of Dortmund, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Dortmund based SME Rapid-I, specialist in data analysis, will screen this raw TV data using data-mining. The resulting ViSTA-TV live statistics will be published and provide reliable information to the user behaviour of the "digital generation". Spectators will benefit in the form of recommendations.

"The TV-statistics could be cheaper, more accurate, faster and more widely available when created with the help of viewers of digital devices such as PC, mobile phone and iPad" says Bea Knecht, chairperson of Zattoo. The BBC and Zattoo serve several million monthly viewers with online-content on these devices. For the first time ever ViSTA-TV will make available anonymised user behavior in real time to other market participants. "This is a revolutionary approach, which until now was reserved only for the measurement of national TV rating agencies, and these are supported on a few thousand households only," says Abraham Bernstein, a professor at the University of Zurich and project coordinator. Rating agencies, content providers and advertisers can incorporate the results obtained by ViSTA-TV - based on millions of responses to the interests of consumers - into their business activities; live and in real-time.

Audience trends discovered by ViSTA-TV are also utilized for the benefit of the live audience. Contents of the live-TV streams from the BBC and Zattoo are enriched by ViSTA-TV with data of genres, actors or content. They are evaluated using technologies such as predictive analytics, data mining, text mining, and video-stream analysis. This rich information generated by ViSTA-TV allows identifying and proposing a spectator’s appropriate favourite TV program content. "Such a referral system requires the combination of real-time behavioural analysis, referral processes, and stream data, that is an exciting challenge for data mining," explains Dr. Ingo Mierswa, CEO of Rapid-I, project partner responsible for the infrastructure of the data-mining platform. "With RapidMiner we provide a powerful tool that has already proven itself in the development of recommendation systems, e.g. within the framework of the European e-LICO project."

ViSTA-TV is hosted by the EU's FP7 research program and runs from 2012 to 2014. Project goal is to increase the international competitiveness of European SMEs, here Rapid-I and Zattoo, through technology transfer. For more information about the project visit the project homepage: http://vista-tv.eu

Informationen on Zattoo
Zattoo is since 2007 the leading independent European provider of live TV on PC, Tablet and Mobile Devices. The service is available in Switzerland, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Denmark and Luxembourg. Zattoo is financed through advertising and premium services to its 1-2 million monthly unique viewers and pays license fees to more than 250 TV stations and content providers.