Channel 4 claims its quest to gain more information about users is helping drive greater content consumption from a large section of its audience.

The Channel 4 data initiative is the broadcaster’s long-term project which aims to get as many of its online audience signed up, providing Channel 4 with information such as age and gender, so that it can refine its content and ad delivery to be more relevant.

Yesterday, speaking at an IAB video conference, Channel 4 head of broadcast and VOD, Keith Underwood, said that 44% of those who had signed up were now watching more content. Since then Underwood has clarified the figures for new media age, adding that the majority of the audience stayed unchanged and just 2% watched less.

This will be music to the ears of other media owners including Absolute Radio, which is also embarking on a similar project in which is planning to make its online products registration-only.

What the likes of Absolute Radio can take from Channel 4 at this early stage is the perfect way in which Channel 4 has promoted this data initiative to its audience.

At the end of May, Channel 4 launched an ePrivacy compliance and consumer awareness campaign about its Viewer Promise, starring comedian Alan Carr, which educates users about how and why Channel 4 wants their data and how they can control it.

The tone of the campaign is Channel 4 all the way through, holding a mild level of humour alongside what is a very serious subject. It leaves the viewer feeling informed but unthreatened by the prospect of having data collected because Channel 4 does a very good job of communicating the benefits.

If all businesses took such an open approach to data and executed communication in such a personable but professional way, the legitimate targeted ad and content businesses, as well as media owners, would have a much easier time moving customers along with innovation.