Verizon Patent Could Listen In On Customers

Verizon has filed a patent for targeting ads that collect information from infrared cameras and microphones that can detect the amount of people and types of conversations happening in customers’ living rooms.

The set-top box technology is not the first of its kind – Comcast patented similar monitoring technology in 2008 that recommended content to users based on people it recognized in the room. Google TV also proposed a patent that would use video and audio recorders to figure out exactly how many people in a room were watching its broadcast.

Verizon filed for the application in May 2011, but the report was published last week due to laws stating that all patent applications be published after 18 months.

FierceCable first publicized the Verizon patent that gives examples of the DVR’s acute sensitivity in customers’ living rooms: argument sounds prompt ads for marriage counseling, and sounds of “cuddling” prompt ads for contraceptives. Read more >>

CNBC’s Ratings Lowest Since 2005

CNBC likes to tout its tagline that it’s “First in Business Worldwide.” And while it may be true that the financial news network has the biggest reach among its peers, viewers continue to slip through CNBC’s fingers.

In case you don’t like mixed metaphors, I’ll just give it to you straight: Nielsen stats show CNBC’s ratings for the quarter were the lowest since 2005. That says it all about where investors are at these days.

CNBC, part of NBC Universal and now owned by Comcast, is one of the biggest outlets in business news, reaching nearly 100 million households in the U.S. and countless offices, restaurants and hotels. But reach doesn’t matter in a battered market like this and high uncertainty about the eurozone, American unemployment and other issues. A lot of folks have no money, and many more have absolutely no interest in investing news right now. Read more >>