Canoe to float interactive, VoD ad demos at NCTA Show

Canoe Ventures is giving NCTA Show attendees a peek at two key projects during the show in Los Angeles this week. Canoe will publicly show off its interactive TV advertising feature and demonstrate how it expects to deliver dynamic video-on-demand ads nationwide.

The show floor's Canoe Channel will feature videos with commercial breaks featuring Canoe's request-for-information application template. The demo, to be housed in the My World exhibit, will trigger mocked-up RFIs during spots--including PSAs for Autism Speaks and Broadband for America, and a History Channel promo--that let viewers request a brochure. The demo is being powered by a special headend being set up by local cable operator, Time Warner Cable.

"It's a real EBIF application being sent by Time Warner specifically for the show," Canoe chief technology officer Arthur Orduna told Multichannel News.

Canoe expects to commercially launch the RFI service within the next two months with one unnamed cable network. That will deliver a national RFI campaign that let subscribers request coupons, product samples or information to be sent in the mail. Canoe has been field-testing the interactive template, which is based on CableLabs' Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format, with all MSO members since late 2009.

In addition to the RFI app, Canoe will stage a multivendor demonstration in the CableNET exhibit area that shows dynamic insert of different ads into VOD content. That demo will use the SCTE 130 standard for ad insertion as well as CableLabs' Stewardship & Fulfillment Interfaces spec.

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