Even though the revenue stream is at least nine to 12 months out, Sigma Systems is today introducing an updated version of its Subscriber Information System (SIS) designed to support cable's Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) interactive advertising components.
Version 2.0 of Sigma's SIS follows SCTE Standard 130 guidelines for targeting addressable advertising based on subscriber demographic information. The Sigma product will "extract all that information and condense it into audience qualifiers and then serve those qualifiers back through things like the ad decision services," said Rick Mallon, vice president of product management for Sigma Systems.
The system requires near-instantaneous decision-making at the time an ad is queued (typically seven seconds before showing) for a targeted product to be selected and sent into the pipe. Thus, advanced equipment will need to be built into cable headends. Sigma's equipment is now installed at CableLabs and in labs with two of the top five MSOs, he said, and the vendor is "in discussions with customers through those lab trials."
Right now the discussions are rudimentary, at best. The first advanced advertising RFIs being issued include advanced campaign management systems and ad decision managers but are vague about Sigma's targeting system. "Our best guess," he said. "is we're still nine to 12 months before we see revenue."
For more:
- see this release
- and this release
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