The move away from third-party cookies in digital advertising could cause broadcasters an annual loss of $2.1 billion, the National Association of Broadcasters believes. Now it has released a report from its PILOT innovation arm to help.
“An important takeaway is that broadcasters should already be focused on assessing, implementing and leveraging first-party data as a tool for mitigating the loss of third-party data revenue and cultivating an ongoing, direct relationship with viewers, listeners and users,” according to a summary page.
“In addition to ensuring appropriate privacy protections and helping to shield against revenue losses, first-party data is far more reliable and usable than third-party data. The recommendation for those who have not yet begun this work is to prioritize it immediately.”
NAB says this issue is “without question … the highest priority for digital leaders at broadcast companies.”
[Related: “New Study Looks at Third-Party Data Phase-Out“]
The new report is the result of a study by the “First-Party Data Direct-to-Consumer Accelerator,” which was created by PILOT with support from the Google News Initiative. Nine broadcast companies participated, including several with radio holdings like Beasley Media Group, Hubbard Radio and Salem Media Group.
NAB said the study focused on “mitigating revenue loss by examining how broadcasters can harness first-party relationships with their audiences. It also considered important issues such as content direction, product marketing and privacy compliance.”
PILOT also commissioned an evaluation of the impact of the third-party cookie phaseout in Europe and its impact on European broadcasters.