RTÉ has struck a deal with broadcast streaming website AerTV to buy data about the online habits of people who watch the national broadcaster's programmes via AerTV on laptops and mobile devices.

RTÉ declined to comment yesterday but it is understood the broadcaster now has access to huge volumes of consumer behaviour data on people who view its shows through the AerTV site. The online streaming service is owned by the television and broadband provider Magnet Networks.

"People are consuming their media on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets. That opens up an opportunity for broadcasters to understand their audiences like never before," said AerTV director Philippe Brodeur.

“We have seen how Facebook and Google can use data to tailor their offering to a user’s specific needs. Online streaming of broadcasting allows AerTV, RTÉ and broadcasters all over the world to do the same,” he said.

Mr Brodeur added that this “potentially changes how schedules are designed” and how advertising campaigns are created.

'Media revolution'
"The media revolution is just beginning and this agreement helps both RTÉ and AerTV to position themselves within that," he said.

RTÉ also declined to comment on what sort of data it would receive about its AerTV viewers’ online habits or how it planned to use and protect the data.

AerTV, which has viewers in 159 countries and recently passed the three million unique visitors mark, streams all of the Saorview free-to-air channels under a previous agreement.

The service is not allowed to stream RTÉ internationally because of rights issues but said there were opportunities for other deals with the national broadcaster, such as creating entirely new channels online.

“[The agreement] offers the prospect of collaboration on further projects in the future,” said Mr Brodeur.

“For example, [we] could help exploit RTÉ’s significant archive to a global audience.”

AerTV is in discussions with “a number of other broadcasters” over data-sharing deals similar to the one it has just struck with the semi-State broadcaster.

Viewing habits
Mr Brodeur said broadcasters and advertisers have traditionally relied on Nielsen data collected about broadcast television viewing habits but new metrics such as ComScore were challenging the dominance of Nielsen.