Microsoft is launching a new advertising platform for operators running its Mediaroom middleware. It combines the ability to monetise traditional and advanced advertising with campaign and decision management.
“We’re bringing the benefits of the online world, that is targeted, measurable and interactive ads, and combining that with the rich emotive power of TV,” Terri Richardson, Group Marketing Manager, Advanced Advertising Initiatives, Microsoft TV, told Broadband TV News. “Unlike some of the legacy systems today that are fairly siloed in terms of having one platform for interactivity and another one for linear, another for local, and another for on demand we’ve tried to architect a solution that covers both traditional and advertising units.”
Online publishers are familiar with Microsoft ad management bringing opportunities for platforms that have both an online and television delivered platform.
In the United States, cablenets are familiar with being granted two to three minutes of advertising time to sell directly to their customers. More recently Project Canoe has highlighted the importance of targeted advertising to the six majors.
Subsequent to last year’s $6 million acquisition of digital marketing company aQuantive, Microsoft Advertising purchased advertising solutions provider Navic Networks, giving it an instant insight into the demands of cable and satellite operators across 35 million receivers. “The two components are the applications layer as well as aggregating information from the networks and we’ll be using their technology as part of our platform,” explained Richardson. Because Mediaroom collects service information from subscribers the two systems could be integrated to deliver personalised advertising.
It is anticipated that the system will be available for deployment from mid-2009.
