Geo Targeted ads

I've been watching some box sets on All4 in recent weeks. Of course the ads can't be skipped (I'm tempted to stump up the 3.99/m to banish them though)

There's normally the same 5 or 6 ads over and over again, including one for Boots. I thought it was odd that the end cap had a map and postcode, at first I thought it was just random, then I clocked it was the real location of a Boots store in Oldham. Didn't think any more of it, until last night, a new ad (woo!), for PC World, and an end cap showing their store in, yep, Oldham!

So, I clock what's happening, but Oldham is 200 miles away, but that's obviously where my IP address (which is static BTW), shows up as being near.

It's all very smart, and obviously far from fool proof, but how many punters do actually get a accurate target I wonder?

Technically speaking your IP address can be traced back to your own connection at your own house, the ISP will know who has what IP address at any particular time as part of their logs, however to get this information IIRC one has to go to court and have a good reason for wanting that information, and advertising details of offers at Boots probably isn't a good reason.

What the system probably sees is where your IP address is actually routed through the internet system which could resurface anywhere in the country but for the bigger companies like Boots that have stores all over the country and mostly use the same offers in all their stores it doesn't really matter that you've seen details of a store 200 miles away because your local Boots will probably do the same anyway.

And of course if you obtained that static IP in Oldham and have moved to Portsmouth (or wherever) and it came with you, it may still get routed through the system the same way to think you're still in Oldham.

Sure you don't have to put your postcode into an All4 account? I honestly don't recall, but it would be a simple explanation.

What happens if you do a reverse IP look-up on your IP address?

Are you sure you didn't give a post code when you registered with All4? (And how can you stand to watch their rubbish only-just-SD pictures? The ads are sub-SD)

I get locally targeted adverts on Global Player radio streams as well on Alexa, presumably they use the data from your customer account on Amazon to gain this info.

In the case of ITV Hub and All 4, if you have a postcode saved on your account they will use that to serve locally targeted adverts. In fact I believe ITV Hub now requires you to login, and you have to enter a postcode at registration.

If that's not available they fallback to looking up the location of your IP address, which depending on your ISP will sometimes give an accurate location, and sometimes won't. My IP on Sky Broadband says I'm in Cambridge, which is close but not exact.


The Global Player Alexa skill has access to the location provided by the device, so if you have the right weather forecast Global know exactly where you are. They usually use it to provide the right local station, for example if I say "play Heart" to my Echo it defaults to playing Heart Cambridge rather than the national feed.

I am aware of the issue occurring where clear web activity on a PC has through magic affected ads served on both the iPad and iPhone use of relevant apps. It’s clear that ads can cross platforms with ease if cookies and trackers are not explicitly forbidden access. There should be no problem with similar Connected TV on the same IP addresses.

It says 'London', which is 50 miles away. For clarity I'm with Plusnet, the London IP address is appartantly quite usual because they use Telehouse in Canary Wharf ?

I've had the IP address for 7 years, We've moved house recently, but only 1.2 miles up the road, and remained on the same BT exchange



I can't remember what exact details I gave when registering, and I don't even remember registering on the telly I'm using, I did register I think on my lap-top from <cough> abroad via a VPN last year. If I did give a postcode, it would have been our own, and genuine (RG22 ***)

Oh yes the pictures are crap, but content is always king (except for the end cap maps which are pin sharp (I did think that was odd, but of course now the penny's dropped......)

I listen to Jazz FM on my phone using EE 4G network, that fires local ads at me that are local (Hampshire) including a rail ad that gives the fares to London from my local railway station. So that's interesting because it suggests your public IP address is locally cell based ?

If you're listening through the official app (or possibly through TuneIn?) I suspect it's using your phone's GPS location to serve targeted ads rather than the IP address. If you've granted permission it could even be accessing your phone's GPS through the web browser.


It could be that EE issue IP's based on mast/area, but I've not heard of this happening before. I'm on Vodafone's 4G network and my IP says I'm in either London or Bournemouth depending on which database you check against, both of which are wrong.

I hadn't thought about the GPS possibility, yes, seems likely!

That's strange, whenever I listen to Radio X on Alexa it says to set my postcode on the Alexa App, although looking it's just a permission thing